As I’ve said many times, the Labour governments under Joseph Muscat and Robert Abela have shown a devotion to continuity. It was promised to us by Abela in the run up to the party leadership vote. He did not let us down.

The past eight years have shown us, again and again, that when it comes to the leaders of the Labour Party, transparency is not their forte.

For years many of us closed an eye or looked the other way. The secret deals and corruption did not seem to matter much. Then the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia shook the country to the core and, for a time, the country started seeing a change.

Sadly, after Muscat’s resignation, when the country had the opportunity to establish some normality, Covid-19 spread across the world. While leaders elsewhere took this opportunity to unite their country and work towards a new post-Covid era with many lessons learnt, Robert Abela took a different route.

Abela’s major fault in this health crisis is the lack of transparency and the conflicting messages. The vaccination roll-out is a case in point.

We were told the supply of vaccines would be in the hundreds of thousands (close to two million) but government was never transparent about the true numbers. Lack of transparency makes people question every step of the way.

Do we know how many vaccines have actually arrived in Malta? Do we know which type of vaccine is in abundance or if there is a shortage of another vaccine? We were told there would be a planned roll-out. Has the plan changed? Why did it change?

If there was a shortage of supply of any of the vaccines from abroad, why hasn’t the government come forward and said it?

Robert Abela’s meltdown in a press conference last Thursday is definitely something we have never seen before. Had it been a woman to react in that way, there would have probably been a national outcry for her resignation on the grounds that she is too weak to lead.

The Prime Minister tried to change the tone of the disastrous PR into one of empathy. He is expecting us to feel sorry for him. So far there are no messages of sympathy coming his way.

On Monday, when the Speaker of the House of Representatives suggested that all Members of Parliament should be given the vaccine, we witnessed a very interesting moment of truth.

First of all, while the Speaker was reading out his rulings, I could see the Prime Minister mentally preparing himself to speak. He even jotted down a few points on a paper.

Then, just as the Speaker finished his last sentence, the Prime Minister got up and stated that HE did not think he should be privileged to take the vaccine and that he would be waiting his turn.

In other circumstances, Robert Abela would have had all his parliamentary group sitting behind him supporting him and banging on the benches in approval. Strangely, not this time.

There weren’t more than ten MPs on the Prime Minister’s side of the house and the MPs eager to be seen behind him were Rosianne Cutajar and Glenn Bedingfield.

In contrast, the Leader of the Opposition, Bernard Grech, had ALL his MPs sitting behind him. When Dr Grech got up to have his say on the Speaker’s suggestion that all MPs should be vaccinated, he insisted that not only he, but all his MPs would be refusing this offer, and that we will all be waiting for our turn according to the roll-out.

This contrast in the choice of words is very telling. Not only does it show Abela’s incapacity to bring his team together. It also indicates that there may be a few MPs from the Government’s side who have already taken the vaccine. If this is the case, and I am not saying that it is, but if this is really the case, then the whole story conjured up by Chris Fearne that members of the Opposition requested to be given the vaccine, is once again a decoy: to deviate the attention away from the Government MPs.

If what I am saying is true, then Robert Abela’s government has truly become worse than Muscat’s. To use the vaccine as a voting weapon to entice the electorate is truly shabby and cheap. To then use the same vaccine as a weapon to attack the Opposition shows a malice that disqualifies anyone from public office.

When I was approached to take the vaccine by a medical staff member at Mater Dei, I knew it was a trap. I have no doubt in my mind that all my colleagues would have done the same. We know what is right and we will not accept to take the vaccine to the detriment of the elderly and vulnerable.

We are not the only ones to know this. The public are seeing through Abela and those around him. Make no mistake, Prime Minister, once you are not transparent on issues related to public health, you will not be trusted on anything.

With the record numbers announced yesterday and a petulant Prime Minister, it is now obvious that the PN in Opposition needs to be the mature voice of reason. Bernard Grech's call for the declaration of a National Health Emergency continues to highlight what true leadership really is. And with all the rumours going around of an internal war within PL, this country needs assurance and leadership.

This article was penned prior to the announcement of the most recent Covid measures