It’s time to choose. It’s time to choose on education matters. Should students continue to pay VAT on all educational services? Should there be a serious revision of the early educational curriculum to decrease the number of illiterate people, like the most advanced European countries did?

It’s time to choose on health matters. Can all people afford to pay for adequate health services? Can all people afford to wait in never ending waiting lists at the hospital?

It’s time to choose for accountability. Are the people fed up of what is happening at Mepa?

It’s time to choose. We have to exploit every human resource on the island, because that is all we have. But we won’t make it unless we take a serious approach to reduce the current illiteracy rate. We need appropriate health services. The cabinet discussed payments for adequate health services. Well, such services are already charged for today; if someone needs medical attention, he/she has the option to either wait in never-ending queues and waiting lists at Mater Dei, or else go to a private institution.

Who can afford to pay, and is desperate, would undoubtedly go for the second option. The current government has grown overconfident; and I am not blaming them. 20 years in power is no joke. But now it is time for change, a change that is healthy for our country, a change that is expected for the benefit of the Maltese Islands and citizens.

Andrea Agius

Bahar ic-Caghaq