Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1441473
10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 JANUARY 2022 Raphael Vassallo OPINION So now it's official: you can 'break quarantine'… but only to vote OK, let me get this straight. The COVID-19 pandemic first hit Malta in Marcwwh 2020 – that's coming up to two years already, folks – and I imagine you won't exactly need me to go into all the details of precisely how this on- going health crisis has impacted (not to say 'devastated') our daily lives. To put it as mildly as I pos- sibly can – and yes: even just to blow off a little steam, after weeks of near-total (and purely precautionary) 'self-isolation' – this whole COVID business has been nothing but a f***ing nightmare, from start to…. Well, there you go already: I was about to say 'finish', of course… but there's no sign of that happening any time soon, is there? Meanwhile, this virus has run amok for two whole years… killing people; driving people to despair; wrecking businesses and livelihoods… and in a nutshell, it has forced every single of us to make enor- mous (and often very painful) personal 'sacrifices' of our own. And – not counting a very small minority of COVID-19 (and/or vaccination) sceptics out there – most, if not all of us have simply bowed our heads to the sheer necessity of all those sacrifices… without (to date, at least) ever complaining too loudly. Please note, however, that this has so far been the case here in Malta. There are cer- tain other European member states, where similar situa- tions have already resulted in full-scale rioting.... and this is probably because (let's face it) there is always going to be limit to how much people are willing to actually put up with, before eventually exploding into violence (and sorry folks: but that's a Universal Law of Sociology that not even Malta – 'exceptional' though we think we are – can remain immune to forever…) So yes: these last two years have indeed been truly hor- rendous, for all the above rea- sons… but at the same time, they have also given us a good, solid foundation of experience, upon which to plan for the fu- ture. To put that into some kind of context: we have had almost exactly as long as Alfred Sant had, as Prime Minister of this country – 22 months – to pre- pare for the (very predictable) crisis we find ourselves in to- day. And throughout all this time, we have also been keenly aware that a General Election would have to be held at some point before June 2013 (i.e., when the probability of yet another emergency was always going to be rather high...) And yet: it was only in Oc- tober 2020 (i.e., a good 18 months into the crisis) that the Electoral Commission an- nounced that it was 'drafting COVID-19 election protocols'; even though, to the best of my knowledge, these 'protocols' have still not been finalized… less than six months away from the latest date this election can possibly be held. Meanwhile, it was only last Friday – by an overwhelming coincidence, right after Ar- nold Cassola had written to the European Commission, to complain about the very same issue – that the Electoral Com- mission suddenly unveiled its 'contingency plans' for election day itself: specifically (and 'ex- clusively') for those voters who happen to be in quarantine. Hmmm. Not to sound suspi- cious, or anything… but if the timing wasn't already proof enough, that this plan was actually 'pulled out of a hat' right there, on the spur of the moment (and even then: only because the Commission was evidently jolted out of its deep slumber, by Cassola's very pub- lic reminder that… how can I put this?... "Isn't there a rather important job you guys should be doing right now? Like, um, figuring out how an election can even be held at all… at a time when the entire country is ravaged by disease?') But if the timing alone wasn't proof enough for… well, there's also the contents of the plan it- self. This, for instance, is how it was reported last Friday: "Drive-through polling booths are being contemplat- ed to allow people positive for COVID-19 to vote in the next general election. [These] could be a workable solution for all those in quarantine during the election. 'We are trying to give every eligible voter the chance to cast their ballot, even if they have contracted COV- ID-19'…." Erm… tell you what, let me repeat that slowly. The Elector- al Commission, it seems, wants to find a 'workable solution for ALL [my emphasis] those in quarantine'; so as to make sure that 'EVERY eligible voter' [ditto] gets to freely vote, with- out any form of discrimination whatsoever… So what did they do? Simple: they came up with a system which caters only for those 'el- igible, quarantined voters' who happen to possess (or have ac- cess to) a functional automo- bile of their own… …you know: just to make damn sure that we introduce a whole new, entirely pointless form of political discrimina- tion… this time, between 'vot- ers who own their own cars', and 'voters who don't'. (I mean, seriously guys… you didn't think this through at all, did you?) But much more calamitously: it is also a system that allows 'quarantined voters' – i.e., the ones who would actually be car- rying the virus, and thus per- fectly capable of transmitting it to others – to simply 'break quarantine': in other words, to commit a crime for which they would otherwise be liable to an on-the-spot €10,000 fine (as well as, in centuries gone by, the possibility of SUMMARY EXECUTION)… but only, and exclusively, for the purposes of voting in an election. Yikes! Sorry to have to ask, but… what was the Elector- al Commission even thinking there? Did it not occur to them that this is precisely the sort of thing that has been known to cause riots – and other forms of violent social unrest – in other countries? Because let's face it: if it's sud- denly 'OK' for Omicron-carri- ers to emerge from the confines of their quarantine, just for the sake of voting in an election… why shouldn't it be allowed for other, equally weighty purpos- es… such as, for instance, to do their weekly shopping? I stand to be corrected, of course (never shop in any of those places myself, you see), but I am told that there are supermarkets, in this country, that likewise offer 'drive-in' services to their customers. And if such arrangements are indeed possible, in the case of an election… why not extend the same privilege to super- markets: or indeed anywhere else, for that matter? Heck, by the same reason- ing… if people can suddenly 'break quarantine' to go and vote… why not to buy a Big Mac or Happy Meal from the McDonalds on the Tal-Bal- al Road? They have a drive-in service too, you know; and it would be every inch as 'safe' and 'protected', as voting at a drive-through polling booth… not to mention that, from the point of view of the quaran- tined voters themselves: what's actually more important, any- way? The ability to 'go out and vote', once every five years… or