I refer to the recent resignation of Stephen Brincat, head of the Oncology Department, and particularly to the aftermath of this unfortunate event, which clearly shows ugly symptoms of a type of cancer pervading our society.

I know of someone who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989 and who for the past 23 years has been under the constant professional care of Dr Brincat. During this patient’s long fight against cancer, Dr Brincat has distinguished himself as a highly competent and professionally conscientious doctor.

Furthermore, he has proved to be one of the most hard-working administrators within the health sector, being the main driving force behind the major developments in oncology in Malta over the past two decades. I am sure that thousands of patients, relatives and staff can testify to his sterling service to society.

Therefore the reaction of the Health Ministry to his resignation, especially the statement that his resignation should be seen as a positive development in the field, came as a complete surprise.

To those who know Dr Brincat closely, such a statement is indeed an indictment on whoever made it and an eye-opener on the poor state of the top ministerial administration in the health sector (and possibly in other public sectors). In fact I suspect some top ministerial official rather than the minister himself was responsible for the gist of this statement.

I have also followed closely public reactions to the cases of chemotherapy toxicity deaths in Gozo. Special attention was given to the fact that these incidents happened 15 years ago and people were more interested in who was in government then (and therefore to score some political points), rather than in the underlying causes of these incidents and of this resignation of a top oncologist.

In Malta, tribal politics rule our lives and the manner in which we perceive and react to events around us. We have allowed our politicians to become too important. Our public administration is rarely built on meritocracy and this is mainly why most of our public authorities fail to act as watchdogs in various sectors and often end up being toothless Chihuahuas in the pockets of our politicians.

Well, Dr Brincat is no toothless Chihuahua and therefore he was perceived as an obstruction to the normal way of conducting administration in our tribal society. What a pity! What a waste of experience and good sense!

As long as each one of us allows or condones such tribal politics, then we will be getting the government, the minister, the public official and the public authority we deserve. We must all share responsibility for this type of administration. Indeed from this perspective, we must all share in the responsibility of the ‘manslaughter’ of good sense.