Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1523510
11 EDITORIAL maltatoday | THURSDAY • 3 JULY 2024 WHAT Steward Healthcare tried to do to Chris Fearne was immoral and criminal. Steward not only spent mil- lions of euros in an attempt to create fictitious stories about Fearne and his personal assistant, Carmen Cian- tar, but did so with the intention of getting Fearne out of the way because he was filibustering their attempts to extract more millions from the Maltese government. This leader expects the preachy American law en- forcement system to come down like a tonne of bricks on Steward, an American company, but we also expect the Maltese police to do their job and carry out their own investigation and bring Ralph de la Torre, Armin Ernst and others to book. And while we express sympathy with Fearne over this ordeal we cannot overlook one simple fact - this is all the result of the sleaze that a Labour government per- mitted. Bernard Grech is right when he says this latest epi- sode is evidence of a mafia state. Let us make no mis- take about it: Steward Healthcare was brought to Malta by Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri with the acquiescence of a Labour Cabinet, including Fearne, who called them 'the real deal', that ignored every warning light. From obscure investors to secretive side agreements, the warnings were ignored, overlooked, minimised and ridiculed. All the while, promises made were not kept. Muscat and his coterie played with fire, got burnt and in the process unleashed hell on the Maltese State. The victims of this wicked and corrupt game were many, not least the public health system. Fearne was also a victim of this game, but he should be blaming no one else but his former boss, Joseph Muscat. The irony is that the same company that paid mil- lions to private investigators to fabricate dirt on Fearne was the same company that paid money to Swiss firm Accutor that had as its consultants Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri after they stepped out of politics. All those in Labour, who today are expressing solidar- ity with Fearne must understand that the only people who did him wrong were the same people they revered just a few weeks ago outside the law courts – Muscat, Schembri and Mizzi. Of course, what happened to Fearne was bad. But tax- payers have been cheated long before Steward kicked off its criminal campaign to try and eliminate him. The pure and simple facts are: Gozitan patients re- main without a state of the art hospital; St Luke's re- mains a high-end pigeon loft; Karin Grech is crying out for some serious investment; and promises of medical tourism becoming the next big thing have all but fiz- zled. And all the while, €400 million of taxpayer money flowed into the pockets of these bastards, who diverted some of that money to try and undermine Fearne and create a 'political fund' in Switzerland. From conception to its court-forced death the hos- pitals deal was fraught with obscurity and hidden agendas at every turn. Corruption is not even a strong enough word to describe the big mess Labour created. It is this mess that the Labour government – Robert Abela's government – must atone for. It must redeem itself and apologise to the people for the pitiful situa- tion it has created. Abela and Fearne must immediately condemn and publicly disown Muscat. Only when they find the will- power to distance themselves from him can they even start to atone. After all, Abela and Fearne are leader and deputy leader of the Labour Party and they should lead the way. Secondly, Abela must withdraw the challenge his government is putting up in the court case initiated by Bernard Grech and Adrian Delia to get back the public funds that were paid to Steward and which were spent illicitly. The Prime Minister can put aside the pretence that Steward did carry out some good investments. He can ask Fearne for advice how some of that investment money was spent – the answer will be anything but positive. But maybe, the time is ripe for a clean sweep of the stables to clear out the mafia tentacles that have sunk deep into the Labour government. We want normality and peace of mind that the next day will not be another saga of corruption, backstab- bing and blackmail. We want a government that tackles the daily traffic ordeal; that cares about the erosion of the middle class's purchasing power; that seeks to seriously enforce leg- islation in the building industry; that changes planning policies to clip the wings of the construction industry; that ensures law and order prevail in our communi- ties; that invests intelligently in education; that tackles hospital waiting lists and interminable waiting times at A&E; that provides a clear direction towards cleaner energy investments. Malta deserves much better than the current swamp it finds itself in. Chris Fearne was a victim but it's Labour's sleaze that is to blame maltatoday MaltaToday, MediaToday Co. Ltd, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 MANAGING EDITOR: SAVIOUR BALZAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR: KURT SANSONE EDITOR: PAUL COCKS Tel: (356) 21 382741-3, 21 382745-6 Website: www.maltatoday.com.mt E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt and leaders, between public opinion and democratic gov- ernance, are complex. Con- temporary politicians too often put their fingers to the wind of public opinion when deciding what policies to advance. Yet the fragility and ambiguity of public opinion make the use of polls problematic as a direct, domi- nant guide to formulating public policy. Simply put, the birth and growth of polling and surveys cannot be met with uniform acceptance or approval. When high-profile political outcomes do not match what polls show, it fuels speculation that people taking surveys have deceived the pollsters. If you doubt that, just take a poll. If a public opinion poll about polls were to be taken, odds are that a majority would offer some rather unfavourable views of pollsters and the uses to which their work is put. In contrast, if you asked whether politicians, business leaders, and journalists should pay attention to the people's voices, almost everyone would say yes