Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1275680
10 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 5 AUGUST 2020 OPINION LIKE many others, I watched the interview Prime Minister Robert Abela gave to One TV this week: the one where he appeared to blame the current resurgence in COVID-19 – or 'second wave', of the kind that Abela himself once told us was only to found 'in the sea') – on a single cluster of 65 new cases, out of 98 African im- migrants rescued on a single day. And like probably only a few others who watched it, I also felt a little irked – if not downright insulted – by the brazen way he tried to deflect his own respon- sibility for the current situation; by scapegoating what can only be described as the most vul- nerable and socially 'unpopular' minority-group in the entire country. Tell you the truth: I was actual- ly outraged by that suggestion… almost as outraged as I imagine many Labour supporters would be, if I went on to say that it re- minded me of speeches by for- mer fascist dictators such as Ad- olf Hitler and Benito Mussolini: both of whom likewise gained much political traction, in their day, by simply blaming all their countries' problems on a single, much-maligned ethnic minority. And yes: I suppose the outrage would be justified, too… because Hitler and Mussolini deliberate- ly made racism and xenophobia the cornerstone of their political ideology (and also committed a few million or so murders while they were at it): and I don't think it would exactly be 'fair' to saddle Robert Abela with the same level of culpability, just on the basis of such a fleeting – and, admitted- ly, very superficial - analogy. But then again... well, that's precisely what outraged me so much in that interview to begin with. It is not exactly 'fair', ei- ther, for the prime minister of a country to point fingers of blame at one particular group of people – any group of people: still less, one which tends to be the tar- geted by racism and xenophobia on such a regular basis anyway – for a crisis they did not cause themselves; and to which, in any case, their own numbers are not actually contributing very much at the moment. Because that's the real problem with Abela's astonishing claim: it is not just unfair… but also bla- tantly untrue. At the risk of repeating argu- ments that have already been made by others: it is misleading, to say the least, to suggest that Malta's recent dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases can be boiled down to any one single cluster… even more so when that cluster, at 65, amounts to less than half the total number of new cases reported since July 22. In any case, all 65 of those im- migrants were transferred di- rectly to detention centres the moment they set foot on the is- land… which means that (unlike other incoming categories, such as tourists and returning holi- day-makers) they have effective- ly been in forced quarantine ever since arrival, with virtually zero chance of infecting anyone else in the wider community. By the same token, then, the re- al cause for COVID-19 concern right now should be directed at all the other new cases that have been reported so far (and, even more so, the estimated 20% more undetected cases that will certainly also be out there)… mi- nus those 65. I need hardly add that these people are highly unlikely to be solely (or even in part) African immigrants… at least, not unless the recent 'Takeover' party at the Radisson Hotel had been heavily advertised at the open centres of Marsa and Hal Far; or unless Malta's migrant community has suddenly taken to attending events like the Santa Venera vil- lage festa in exceptionally large numbers... No, they are much more likely to consist of Maltese people, and a few other categories that Rob- ert Abela so casually left out of his target-list: like the random, sporadic tourists we invited here, when we re-opened our airport to all the usual destinations… in- cluding some of the worst-hit re- gions of Europe and elsewhere… whilst also unilaterally declaring that the COVID-19 emergency was 'over'. And this, ultimately, is what makes Abela's insinuation so unpalatable. Not only are those 65 immigrants entirely blame- less for the current epidemic… but the resurgence itself can be traced, directly and unequivo- cally, to decisions and attitudes taken by Prime Minister Robert Abela himself, and other mem- bers of his government. I've already mentioned the air- port; but there was also the de- cision to completely lift all but a handful of COVID-19 safety precautions on June 30: includ- ing (among many others) a ban on gatherings of larger than four people. And it's not as though the pos- sible consequences of such a hasty, unrestricted re-opening policy had not been made abun- dantly clear from beforehand, either. People like MHRA chairman Tony Zahra might today argue that 'hindsight gives us all 20/20 vision'… but there were plen- ty of other voices in the coun- try – including all the medical associations, as well as the Su- perintendence of Public Health - which had repeatedly warned us about the possibility of a re- newed epidemic, should Malta choose to open up too much, and too quickly. They didn't need 'hindsight' to make that prediction; all they needed to do was look at the ex- perience of other countries, in- cluding our closest neighbours… something that both Abela's government, and all the business interests that lobbied so hard for a speedy re-opening, seemed in- capable of doing when it really mattered most: i.e., around three or four short weeks ago. Who, then, is to blame for the spectacular materialisation of this very prediction, so soon af- ter it was made? Is it the Prime Minister who – until very recently – consist- ently belittled and pooh-poo- hed all such concerns, while giving us all endless assurances that everything would simply return to normality without a hitch? Is it the Prime Minister who so rashly declared that 'Malta won its war on COVID-19'… thus imparting the message, loud and clear, that the danger was firmly 'behind us'? Or is it the Prime Minister who simply failed to listen to any of the expert advice he'd been giv- en, time and again, concerning the risks of implementing his own policies? No, of course not. It's the fault of a bunch of African immi- grants, naturally… as it always seems to be, whenever a Maltese government has been placed with its back to the wall, by cir- cumstances that are entirely of its own making. It's just too easy to blame it all on immigrants… Raphael Vassallo