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2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella MANAGING EDITOR Saviour Balzan Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 AUGUST 2020 Politicians, give way to the experts Editorial AS opinions collide over the government's handling of the current COVID-19 resurgence, it is inevitable that attempts are now being made to 'politicise' the situation. Critics of the government are accused of de- liberately ignoring, or minimising, the economic aspect of the problem; the doctors' union MAM has in particular been accused of harming the national interest by declaring industrial action. This is, however, a misleading picture. While concerns about government's approach certainly do exist, the reality is that everybody involved in this debate – including the medical associations – understands that a delicate balancing act does have to be performed between safeguarding eco- nomic interests, and protecting public health. This newspaper has never opposed the re-opening of the Maltese economy. The media industry is itself intimately linked to so many other industries, and therefore understands the shorthand of business: people need work and dis- posable income to maintain sustainable levels of quality of life, and businesses need to survive and retain earnings for innovation and investment. But the haste with which certain economic sectors were re-opened leaves no doubt that Mal- ta's "post-COVID" strategy has backfired. We are now at levels of infection similar to those in April, at the height of the soft lockdown; and yet no public health emergency is being declared. This is simply outrageous, and the longer poli- ticians take to heed the decisions of experts, the closer we are getting to, once again, another lock- down that will only punish the economy further. Somewhere along the line, Malta was perform- ing well with a strategy that seemed to heed the advice of our scientists. The soft lockdown was a successful strategy that allowed us to reach al- most a new social pact of remote working, agreed wage cuts and reduced working hours: making necessary sacrifices in order to safeguard the community's health. Now, by way of contrast, we are suffering the consequences of Robert Abela's affinity with pop- ulist concerns. All throughout the initial months of the COVID pandemic, his language all too of- ten betrayed his main concerns: that of incurring the displeasure of those who would be locked up at home, and denied the pleasures of the normal- ity we had left behind. And when, suddenly, COVID cases were down to a trickle, Abela's triumphalism appeared to carry a note of self-vindication: arguing that the situation would have been worse had he not re- sisted implorations for stricter restrictions – and even mocking the prospects of a secondary wave in one of his political party transmissions; only to later try to offload the increase in cases by attrib- uting it to an increase in migrant rescues. It was clear, from the start of the loosening of restrictions, that mixed messages were the order of the day: mixed messages that can trace their origins to the strained political evaluation of the pandemic's effect on Malta by Abela and his erst- while leadership rival, the deputy PM and health minister Chris Fearne. This conflict has seriously contaminated the scientific advice that should have been guiding Malta's gradual re-opening of the economy. At a crucial time in which scientists' warnings, from across all the fora of doctors and medical asso- ciations, should have been guiding our national decisions, we saw politicians taking centre-stage instead: hailing a "Maltese summer" of mass tourism and brain-addled entertainment, that has now been marred by a spike in cases. This raises further questions. Can the Pub- lic Health Superintendent explain why the risk assessments on COVID-19 have been withheld from the press and the public? Why is a national emergency not being declared now, despite the average of 45 new cases a day? And why are we risking that schools do not re-open, with dele- terious consequences for thousands of children and their parents, apart from the added conflict between decision-makers and teachers unions? The Prime Minister has to face up to his re- sponsibility on this matter. Malta's re-opening of the economy was at best haphazard, and did not enforce proper health measures across the board: once again illustrating our national epidemic of unfairness. No clear policy on face-masks and social dis- tancing was enforced, at once creating a gulf be- tween those with a sense of community and those who either chose to ignore the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, or worse, stood to profit from unrestrictive economic re-opening. The consequences are of national importance; therefore, a public inquiry is now in order to es- tablish responsibilities on the way Malta's COV- ID-19 strategy has so far been handled (or rather, mishandled). Above all, however, it is now time for politi- cians and business lobbies to take a step back, and instead support front-liners and health au- thorities. And the only way to achieve this, is to restore full powers to the public health superin- tendent, by once again declaring a public health emergency. 16 August, 2010 Sliema mayor expulsion in breach of PN statute Sliema Mayor Nikki Dimech was officially expelled from the PN this week, after he in- formed secretary – general Paul Borg Olivier he had admitted to demanding €5,000 kick back on a €25,000 council tender. But the expulsion appears to have been ordered in breach of the party statute that gives all PN members the 'right to a fair trial' by objecting to their expulsion. Borg Olivier called Dimech on Wednesday 11 August shortly after Dimech emerged from interrogation at the police headquarters. The next day, he sent a had delivered letter informing Dimech he had been expelled and that it expected him to resign as mayor of Sliema. But according to the PN statute, before a decision is taken by either the executive com- mittee or the administrative council, the PN members have "the right to be informed in writing of the date of the sitting when their expulsion is to be discussed, and to present themselves and offer the defence the deem suitable." When asked whether Dimech had been expelled by a vote taken by the PN executive committee, Borg Olivier told MaltaToday the decision to expel Dimech was "final and taken by the administration as a disciplinary meas- ure subsequent to his communication with the Party that he admitted with the police of having solicited a bribe from a contractor in a tendering process." "Mr Dimech may have to answer to crim- inal charges when and if pressed. However, and in the circumstances the PN Adminis- tration decided his political position with the Party was no longer tenable, considering his declarations to the police." According to the PN statute, the party "does not consider as members" those who resign from the party, join other parties or "act in such a way that the Executive Committee deems will prejudice the best interests of the PN." Only the Executive Committee can expel members or delegate this power to the admin- istrative council... Quote of the Week "Edward Scicluna now rails against the fact that decisions were taken by an inner core... ignoring the most obvious fact that as a Finance Minister he would have signed off on most of these shady deals" PN MP Mario De Marco MaltaToday 10 years ago