On February 7, former prime minister Joseph Muscat and former opposition leader Adrian Delia were tied together on the same page of a local news website. Both were denying and defying reality, again.
Muscat was desperately trying to convince that it is absolutely normal for the prime minister of an EU state to introduce a suspected money-launderer and alleged murder-mastermind to the deputy chairman of an international bank.
He insisted it’s normal for a prime minister to advise a serious financial crime and murder suspect to retain shareholding of a major project. He hysterically maintained it’s normal for the prime minister to openly discuss with a suspected criminal his business dealings with a potential investor. He forced us to accept that brokering meetings and possible deals between suspected launderer-murderers and international bank officials is a prime minister’s role.
Even by Robert Abela’s low standards, Muscat had crossed the ‘demarcation line’: “it depends on whether the friendship was after Yorgen Fenech was implicated in the murder case.” Muscat knew that Fenech was implicated in the case when he tried to link him up with Paolo Scaroni.
Muscat pleaded: “I am sure you understand that this is normal practice... I acted normally.” Normal for Muscat – that is deceitfully, dishonestly, unethically, shamefully. He even attacked the media – The Sunday Times of Malta had sourced its information from WhatsApp chats in the hands of investigators, he accused.
The next news item was Delia trying to convince that he bore no responsibility for the hoax he fronted to Dar tal-Providenza’s detriment. On New Year’s Day, Delia pompously and melodramatically turned up on live TV, disrupting a fund-raising marathon to gain cheap publicity. Without informing his party leader or the organisers of the marathon he appeared on stage with a €500,000 cheque.
“I investigated who the donors were and accepted to present the pledge,” he bragged. Except he hadn’t bothered at all. From his contacts he would have known that Sliema Wanderers’ players, sponsored by the same Catco group, had not been paid for months. He wasn’t disconcerted by the embarrassment and damage he caused Dar tal-Providenza. “This is not a one-off,” he bragged, “They can bank on a regular donation from Catco.”
Not surprisingly, Catco group failed to provide the most basic information required for the due diligence process. The €500,000 donation Delia boasted about fell through. Instead of apologising for his embarrassing misjudgement and the false hopes he raised, Delia accused the media of “wanting to cast doubts”. What doubts? His pledge was fake – there was no money. Farcically, Delia warned: “To those who want to create harm, I am going to answer with more work.”
Muscat and Delia live in their own fantasy world.
The tragedy is that thousands of our citizens still inhabit that world too.
How could these two impostors have risen to the highest offices in the country? How could they have duped so many for so long, one more than the other?
Their eventual self-conflagration was inevitable but they also burnt down the entities they led, the country in Muscat’s case and the party in Delia’s. The greater the power they amassed, the more devastating and lasting the destruction they left behind.
The glorification and adulation of crooks will persist. Outright lies will be believed and the obvious truth doubted- Kevin Cassar
Thousands still revere the two. The tendency for the public to believe outright lies is not a uniquely Maltese phenomenon. QAnon, a conspiracy theory claiming that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama lead a Satan-worshipping paedophile ring that will be destroyed by the hero Donald Trump, is believed by thousands. Groups promoting the theory boast more than 400,000 followers. QAnon supporters led the storming of the Capitol, highlighting the disastrous effects of believing lies.
Motivated reasoning, a human tendency to believe whatever satisfies our preconceptions, whether true or false, is one explanation why apparently normal people believe such rubbish. Collective narcissism, a group’s inflated belief in its own significance, is another. This tends to look for imaginary enemies, such as the media.
This urge is particularly strong when leaders of their group fail – Muscat and Delia. Trump repeatedly attacked the “fake media”. At the storming of the Capitol, journalists were attacked, their equipment smashed and “murder the media” was scrawled on the walls. The burning of the Times offices and the attack on Eddie Fenech Adami’s house was triggered by a lie that the Nationalist Party tried to kill Dom Mintoff.
Once people believe something it is almost impossible to dissuade them, a phenomenon called belief echoes. This is an obsessive, emotional response to information that can linger even after it’s known to be false.
So how can we fight it? How can we prevent another Muscat or Delia? By educating people.
A study by Sander van der Linden (October 2020) showed that 22 per cent to 37 per cent of people in the UK, US, Ireland, Spain and Mexico readily believe lies. A smaller proportion find the truth highly unreliable. Across all countries, numeracy skills were associated with a lower susceptibility to believe lies.
Malta has an uphill struggle. The Education and Training Monitor report issued by the European Commission in 2019 showed that almost one-third of Maltese 16-year-olds lack numeracy skills. More than 35 per cent struggle to read. Those proportions are far higher in the older generations who were denied formal education.
In the thick of Muscat’s mess, in November 2019, his support among primary-educated voters was 58.9 per cent, an absolute majority. Only one-third of tertiary-educated voters supported him. Delia’s support was dismal across the board but was strongest among the least educated (26.9 per cent). His support among university-educated voters was only 8.5 per cent.
Sadly, the poor literacy rate in Malta guarantees that, for the foreseeable future, Muscats and Delias will triumph. The glorification and adulation of crooks will persist. Outright lies will be believed and the obvious truth doubted. The country will suffer for generations to come.
Kevin Cassar is professor of surgery and former PN candidate.