The Hippocratic Oath

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1909

By Jamil Matar
Even when sometimes I have difficulty remembering if I turned off the fan in the living room a little while ago, I had no difficulty in vividly recalling the theater of all PUP standard-bearers flamboyantly signing a “Social Contract with the People” in 1998, a stunt indistinguishable as to what they recently repeated in 2020. What is happening to the once great PUP? Are they feeling so haughty these days to think that political fanatism transforms normal Belizeans into simpletons? Could they not have thought of a different gimmick to hoodwink us this time around? Truth be known, it is not the dramatization of signing a worthless document which gravely concerns the average person, you know; in reality, the spectacle offered us clean, live, free entertainment. Rather, it is the afterclap of the 1998-2008 contract that worries us deeply. Ten years of merciless looting came after their first “contract with the people”. Our country simply cannot handle a repeat of another duplicitous contract, which may yet see another similar PUP government legally engage in unrestrained looting. That will be the end of Belize. God forbid; our country will experience a lasting Haitian-style economic depression.
Before I proceed, though, let me hasten to interject that despondency is not the subject of this discourse, duplicity is. Merely three weeks ago, the Opposition and its surrogates, including two well-known flip-floppers here in OWT, were quick to condemn the government’s new Statutory Instrument, which required the Director of Health Services to share the names of infected patients with the Police, so that the Department could ensure that quarantine protocols were being respected. The PUP claimed that this was a breach of the Hippocratic Oath, which governs doctor-patient confidentiality.
Now the PUP is demanding that all persons under Covid-19 quarantine be allowed to vote, since it is their “constitutional right”. For the sake of this discourse, let us say that we fully agree with the PUP’s position. Now, the same exalted Hippocratic Oath will be completely disregarded since the Health Services Sector will be obligated to reveal the names of all infected patients. However, instead of only to the police, people who will now need to know the full identities of Covid patients will now include the Returning Officers, the Polling Clerks, the political candidates, the polling agents, and the political runners. Even with proxy votes, many people will still have to see the names and ID’s of the sick. The PUP said no to the police who wanted to act in the interests of public safety, but they now demand to reveal Covid-sick names to blubber mouth politicians. Can you imagine?
Let us continue on this same path of critical thinking. All those persons presently living under quarantine conditions will more than likely test negative by November 11 and be able to interact safely with the public. I think that what the Opposition is worried about is the fact that on Nomination Day almost all PUP constituencies completely ignored the social distancing protocols so that they could “pappy show” themselves on the streets. As a result, many of their fanatical supporters, even the candidates maybe, including their Leader, may test positive in the next two weeks. Then it will not only be Cayo West Espat who will be unable to vote for himself, but a whole bunch of them. They are already protesting ahead of time.
As to Jorge Espat, as soon as I saw the news about a PUP candidate not being a registered voter, I knew that Espat did not have a Belizean birth certificate. To make matters worse, he went on TV to lie that he was so busy that he forgot to re-register. As the dread-locks bally who lives on Progress Street shouted out loudly, “even my no-teeth granny remembered to go re-register, now this man who is a candidate forgot?” Da fool di talk… I think the PUP should not allow this man to run. Espat not only lied to his PUP Leadership, he lied to the entire nation. I thought that the PUP’s society called the Order of Distinguished Service meticulously screens their candidates. This is a terrible blunder on their faces. The ODS fell asleep at the wheel!