A bouquet of reflections

Reflection No 1 - Mandela

One of the greatest man of last century has passed away. What impresses me most about Madiba is the consistency of objectives and the flexibility and pragmatism of the tools used to reach those objectives.

His objective was always to unite SA as one nation for black and whites with equal rights and opportunities. The tools changed from non violent protests, to violent reactions, to forgiveness and inclusion.

27 years in prison purely because he could not tolerate injustices would have broken most but not Mandela.

Rough justice made him live till 95 because his devotion to the mission made him waste 27 of them locked away in a prison cell.

Reflection 2  -  Oil Scandal

In giving evidence this week in court the beneficiary of the Presidential pardon of the oil scandal who is bound to say the truth and nothing but the truth implicated involvement of an ex ambassador who demanded his cut from the goodies.

Are the police going to show the same haste they showed when they charged my brother Tarcisio before the election in a clear effort to divert political damage onto people of Labour's creed?

Ask anybody around and you get the same answer.  When Tarcisio was at Enemalta until 2003 things in oil procurement were always fully documented and done with high standards of corporate governance.  If anything the criticism against Tarcisio was that he was too doggedly rigid in defending his employer's interest.

That's Maltese justice!  Before elections police are very selective in their operations trying to please their political masters.  After the elections one gets the impression that anything goes.

Reflection 3 - IIP

Minister Scicluna has not criticized the Scheme. He has criticized the undue haste with which the Scheme was marketed and the wrong perception projected that passing through the due diligence test was mere formality.

As to the substance of the Scheme the only new things which Scicluna has said is that government could enforce strict quota on the Scheme and may consider some form of minimum residency.

This is a highly divisive issue about which government has not defended its position as well as it should.  It makes sense to keep consultations and efforts for consensus going over festivities but after that government has to decide.  If no consensus can be reached it has to execute or scrap its IIP plans.

After all it is becoming clear that the PN have no intention of reaching consensus in a fair way but only to force government into submission to score political points.

Reflection 4 - Health service

It is ironic that in discussing problems with Mater Dei and the Public Health Service a mistake is being committed which the medical profession is trained to avoid.  We are treating the symptoms rather than the cause.

The cause can only be treated if we ask ourselves the relevant questions and give honest answers:

CAN WE AFFORD TO KEEP UNIVERSAL FREE ENTITLEMENT?

IS IT SOCIALLY CORRECT TO DO SO?