Sadly, this is not an original title. I have shamelessly ripped it off from The Spectator magazine (March 21) where, in this article, Lloyd Evans pens a portrait of the two scientists, Sir Patrick Vallance and Prof. Chris Whitty, who are Boris Johnson’s ‘medical wingmen’ in his government’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

I read this article on my balcony while in isolation and it came to mind last Sunday afternoon while watching Chris Fearne and Charmaine Gauci’s triumphant press conference when they announced that, for a number of days, Malta’s infection rate has significantly dwindled and no new cases have been registered for 24 hours.

But you ask, even in these enlightened times of gender identity, referring to Charmaine Gauci as a gentleman is a bit of a stretch even though the play I am referring to is considered by scholars to be Shakespeare’s first play in which the heroine is dressed as a boy. But I am digressing or showing off. Take your pick.

The two gentlemen of corona in this scenario are Fearne and Prime Minister Robert Abela. Ever since this pandemic hit, it has become increasingly obvious that, every time Fearne addresses a press conference, the difference between the two men is stark. You can’t help comparing his calm, measured tones to Abela’s histrionics and people take to their socials to say so.

Fearne likes to speak in metaphors – he speaks about tsunamis, waves and streams when he tells us about his vision for tackling COVID-19. Allow me to use another one to describe the difference between Abela and Fearne – it’s a yawning chasm, it’s the Grand Canyon. It’s a bottomless abyss.

Chris Fearne has harnessed the good that a government can be for its citizens. This is what a good politician does- Alessandra Dee Crespo

Consider the prime minister’s press conference on the night he summoned his entire cabinet – with no consideration of his own government’s social distancing measures – to attack an NGO for daring to ask questions about reports that appeared in the international press about an alleged sabotage of a boat carrying migrants. Since the government chose to ignore repeated calls for an explanation, Repubblika, true to its remit as an organisation that promotes and safeguards the rule of law, had no other choice but to ask for an investigation.

Was it strategically savvy? Some, even our most ardent supporters, say no. But was it the right thing to do? Yes, it is always the right thing to hold power to account, to be the voice of the voiceless when the people with authority commit sins of omission to score cheap political points. We have nothing on our conscience.

With his show of force on that night of the long knives, Abela stoked the flame of racism by using COVID-19 as a weapon to strike down the vulnerable and ignited misplaced nationalism. He cast us as traitors. He used the might of the government and his party (same difference) to crush dissent like a thug whose authority is being questioned by the unpopular kids in the playground. Fear is an opportunity for the bad politician to demonise ‘the other’. Robert Abela would not look out of place on the balcony in Piazza Venezia.

Fearne, on the other hand, has harnessed the good that a government can be for its citizens. This is what a good politician does. A good politician seizes the opportunity to harness fear into something productive. “We’re in this together” was Fearne’s mantra and it inspired us all to do our bit for our country. Just like a war effort.

Fearne is waging war on the virus, Abela is waging war on people who will not allow a pandemic to obfuscate the fact that, while we are trying to save lives on land, people were dying at sea.

Much as I think that Fearne is the true ‘gentleman of corona’, one really wonders what he makes of the fact that, as health minister, he lacks three national hospitals that could have made his job easier and why he has not wrested them from Steward Health Care yet. Today, the Nationalist Party’s motion on our stolen hospitals will be discussed in parliament.

Fearne, as a scientist with a forensic mind for incontrovertible facts, knows that this deal is corrupt. He said so to Tim Sebastian. As a doctor, he also knows that the second wave of the coronavirus is coming and he might need those hospitals. His fellow members on the government benches know by now that they chose the wrong prime minister last January. Will they also back the wrong man again on Thursday?

Members of Parliament, do your bit for the country today in the war against corruption.

Alessandra Dee Crespo is a member of Repubblika executive committee.

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