Aqra bil-Malti

Carmen Ciantar is complaining that she and her daughter were “collateral damage” in a political frame-up, wondering who financed “the evil plot”.

It’s interesting how words change when those who supported the evil plot by “dark forces” suddenly have guns turned against them.

She claims in a statement that “facing these heinous public lies without knowing who is behind them and financing them has been unbearable”.

Well, cry me a river. Let’s put this in perspective.

The Shift revealed how former health minister Chris Fearne put his chief canvasser Carmen Ciantar on a €163,000 financial package through a five-year contract at the Foundation for Medical Services, described by the Auditor General as “irregular”.

While rules state that political appointees cannot have contracts longer than a year, Fearne went on to appoint his campaign manager as his chief of staff while allowing her to retain her €13,500 a month remuneration – almost three times what the minister himself was paid.

Her daughter also benefitted from Fearne’s generosity. Celine Camilleri Ciantar was appointed to an expert medical board – the Treatment Abroad Committee – that decides which patients get medical treatment abroad. She was only 26 and graduated as a dentist less than two years earlier.

The committee includes some eight senior medical consultants tasked with deciding which patients are to be sent for medical interventions and treatment abroad, as well as providing recommendations to the health ministry for the introduction of new services in the healthcare system.

Medical consultants on the committee had told The Shift that the young Camilleri Ciantar, who was also put on the government’s payroll as a dentist in the health service soon after she graduated, had absolutely no experience in the treatment of patients abroad, and her presence jarred with the rest of the professionals on this committee.

Fearne was the health minister. The “real deal” he sold to the public is now returning to bite him and those close to him, and suddenly, he has woken up to the fact that all he supported to protect his interests actually has an impact on lives.

It was journalists who revealed Steward Health Care was behind the campaign. Local journalists did not fall for it – we made this clear. We called it out. This was a hit piece.

But if Fearne had taken any action on journalists’ investigations in the last few years, he would have ended the concession he must have known was not working.

Instead, Fearne voted in favour of the deal, even supporting disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi in a vote of no confidence in parliament.

There is no pleasure in seeing someone targeted by these “dark forces”. But those now playing the victim are responsible for the situation imposed upon the country. And they are spending way too much time playing the victim rather than apologising to the country.

Fearne and Ciantar were in positions of power. They had the power to decide. They did nothing except further their personal interests, taking as much money from taxpayers as possible while Malta’s health service crumbled.

In her statement, Ciantar said: “Facing these heinous public lies without knowing who is behind them and financing them has been unbearable”.

Where were Ciantar and Fearne when journalists revealing the scandal over the past few years were targeted by members of the same government and their propaganda outlets? Wasn’t that unbearable too?

She said the campaign created “trust issues” for Ciantar and her daughter. What did she think the discrediting campaigns by the government against journalists revealing the scandal did? She had nothing to say then.

“My daughter and I were collateral damage in a political frame-up perpetrated by dark forces,” she said in her statement.

The dark forces are the ones she supported with Fearne. Her daughter was privileged to get immediate government positions when she was too young to know the responsibility she was being handed.

The Shift was clear when the campaign happened that we believed this was a smear campaign. We recognised it because we had been subjected to it.

We were alone. Nobody in power said anything. Now, it hit them, and they are suddenly the victims of circumstance.

No. This was their own doing.

Meanwhile, the prime minister has said that he would nominate Fearne to the EU if he clears his name in two weeks.

Fearne is facing corruption charges following the magisterial inquiry into the hospitals deal. When, in Malta, have you seen anyone’s name in court cleared in two weeks? Perhaps the sob stories are intended to achieve that goal.

Enough with the hypocrisy.