The reaction of the opposition media to my light-hearted comments of a few weeks ago is worth revisiting. They have taken umbrage at my translation into Maltese, of the English idiom ‘growing on trees’. The journalist was enquiring about the relative scarcity of nursing staff in affluent countries while pointedly parroting my supposed mistreatment of the nursing class.

Using common English parlance, I refered to this relative deficit by “they don’t grow on trees”. Almost certainly the humour was lost on journalist, editor and their consultant alike.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the opposition came out weak in its response to the events which unfolded at St Vincent de Paul (SVP) Long Term Facility in June of last year and thereafter. The opposition’s stand on the basic standards of care, the equally crucial aspects of security and the matter of staffing ratios has been tepid at best and hopelessly misleading at worse.

It is no secret that few newcomers to the political fray will find it easy to tackle the daunting task of answering hostile questions impromptu. I admit that, almost a year into it, it still feels like traipsing through barbed wire on a minefield. My fledgling individual preference is to answer pertinent questions fully and technocratically while striving to break down complex issues in order to render them understandable.

In answering the unavoidable thorny questions aimed at abetting character assassination, my answers tend to be more tongue-in-cheek. Case in point, I was asked: “Why are you trampling on nurses?” Everyone who knows anything about me, knows full well that, in 30 odd years of hospital practice, I got my hands dirty in 20 hospitals in six countries.

Working alongside physiotherapists, pharmacists, nurses, health assistants, carers, radiographers, ECG technicians and cleaners, I can state for a fact that I have never knowingly or unwittingly treated any of my colleagues without the respect they deserve. Moreover, it beggars belief that such a question was posed on the back of my ministry’s very recent success in engaging 77 new nurses at SVP, over and above the usual annual allotment.

The opposition came out weak in its response to the events which unfolded at St Vincent de Paul- Jo Etienne Abela

So one has to question the real motive behind such a question. And that reason is very simple indeed. The opposition seems to be toying with the prospect of  joining the fray that condemns my ministry’s steadfastness in refusing to tamper with the results of the independent inquiry into the disappearance of the late Carmelo Fino.

To be sure, I was vehemently criticised for my defence of the  findings and recommendations of an inquiry led by an irreproachable former member of the judiciary.

The document was duly passed on by the ministry’s permanent secretary to the SVP management and, hence, disciplinary actions were instituted by the Public Service Commission.

These actions were instituted in strict observance of the law. My refusal to interfere with this lawful process triggered a string of union directives that illegally affected the flow of the most vulnerable older persons (to say nothing of their care) and the now all too familiar series of attacks on my person.

Character assassination stems from individuals who publicly equate determined resolve with inexperience. In this warped way of thinking, doing right by vulnerable older persons was interpreted as stubborn ineptitude. The opposition frequently professes to be the anointed paladin of the rule of law, a paragon of virtue, so to speak. But if this scenario were a test, the opposition’s silence is well and truly deafening.

This behaviour is symptomatic of an opposition that,  when it matters, it is veritably unable to call a spade, a spade. The same can be said for the opposition’s reaction to the beefing of security measures at the same facility.

Rather than come up with decent and constructive proposals in this regard, their only comment was that the government was squandering money.  Obviously, they had no answer when I asked them back on the value they would attach to an old person’s life and well-being. 

Be that as it may, it is fair to say that, at the very least, the opposition lost its moral compass and manifestly abdicated its role to safeguard the basic rights and needs of an elderly population that is vulnerable.

On the other hand, the government is committed to fulfil its strategy to improve the quality of life of all citizens in this country. Notwithstanding the puerile attempts at character assassination, we remain steadfast in our duty to provide excellent care to vulnerable older persons. We shall do right by them without fear or favour.

Jo Etienne Abela is Minister for Active Ageing.