On Sunday, January 31, Robert Abela had an epiphany: he told us that we are all in heaven. I am not sure what kind of sudden apparition he experienced but I doubt any host of angels came to carry him above. I wonder what has made him feel so ecstatic since I am certain that nothing untoward induced him into this trance-like state.

Abela was patting himself on the back for the fact that he has repeatedly ignored urgings from his far more rational health minister, his health authorities, his doctors and anyone else with some sense or grey matter. Despite all advice to the contrary, he has never discouraged any sort of gathering, with the result that the numbers of those suffering from COVID-19 have gone up so drastically, that he now has to take measures to curb carnival, to prevent yet more victims from going to heaven or suffering purgatory on earth.

And this can happen only on condition that the imbecile ‘mechanisms’ we witnessed last summer will not happen again. Abela speaks only of the economy but forgets the economy is driven by human lives; money cannot replace lives. He should perhaps curb the greed of those who continue to line their pockets unhindered at the expense of those who try to make a living by honest means, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet, also because of the effects of the pandemic.

Since I have never been in heaven, and hope not to go there for a long while yet, I would like to bring our beatific prime minister back to earth and remind him of only some of the reasons why his policies, and the mess disgraced Joseph Muscat has left us in, have certainly not traced the right path to heavenly realms.

Abela’s experience of heaven certainly does not match that of many of us who watch our countryside being despoiled, our ministers and their minions or financers obtaining land and favours by dubious means, the unfortunate birds that venture into our skies shot mercilessly, our farmland taken, our country becoming more and more uglified due to the lack of proper urban policies, our institutions being hampered, day after day, from functioning and carrying out their work properly, irrespective of who is at the helm.

‘Team Malta’ is also made up of civil society, which is demanding reform in various sectors, including parliament and the constitution- Vicki Ann Cremona

Let us take the fate of a young girl called ‘Heavenly’, a three-year-old who has been impeded from acceding to one of her fundamental rights – that of a proper education. Abela and his minister, Byron Camilleri, have approved measures enforced by Identity Malta preventing children of migrants and refugees from receiving specific residence authority status through their fathers.

In other words, these children cannot accede to free schooling or medical treatment if they are sick. Is Rosianne Cutajar, responsible for anti-racism policy, going to do her duty and point out that this is against human rights and may also be condemned as a racist act? Or is she too busy looking the other way?

And what about that other category of citizens, our prisoners? People in prison are (rightly) serving punishment for offences they have committed but deprivation of liberty does not mean dehumanisation. What is Camilleri doing about dehumanising treatment such as the ‘punishment chair’, which was for so long denied until a photo of it was published in the papers? His only, and totally unacceptable, justification was that inhumane treatment on this chair happened before he became minister!

I would remind Camilleri that, since he is minister now, we, as the public, have the right to know what he is doing about it and how he intends to punish those who thought up and exercised this inhumane treatment. And, yet, it is as minister that he continues to defend his prison director, on whose watch this instrument of torture was set up. The same prison director who, to justify himself, told us in a television interview that he has to deal with big men coming towards him with blades, without explaining how come these blades are allowed into prison in the first place.

In his epiphanic vision, Abela, just as he tends to do on earth, must not have paid proper attention to what was going on around him. He probably avoided the gaze of one, Daphne Caruana Galizia, who is probably in heaven because of her determination to reveal the truth at whatever cost, including that of her life. He probably was too afraid to admit how he has been trying to suppress the public inquiry into her death.

Luckily, those heading the inquiry are made of different stuff: the determination to do justice and bring out the truth. He probably also averted his eyes from those men, women and children who drowned at sea because of his inhumane measures. One wonders what measures he intends to take this year, which safeguard the respect and dignity due to all mankind. Will he refrain and stop others from fomenting racist discourse?

Abela has called for ‘Team Malta’, with the government and opposition working together. We shall be watching very closely to see whether this ‘Team’ is going to mean an opposition that is going to dance to the prime minister’s tune as it has done in the recent past.

Lastly, Abela, do not forget that ‘Team Malta’ is also made up of civil society, which is demanding reform in various sectors, including parliament and the constitution.

As for Heaven Malta, let us think of the earthly one for now – there is more than enough to change in it!

Vicki Ann Cremona is a former president, Repubblika.