Examples of repeating a lie until it’s believed are widespread, especially in today’s era of fake news. When combined with effective communication and persuasion, the power of repetition becomes a highly reliable tool.
However, the same principle that applies to lies can also be harnessed to convey the truth or to help it ultimately come to light.
Bitter experience shows us that one needs to keep harping on the truth, repeating it as many times as necessary, and, why not, recycling it for that truth to be acknowledge and acted upon.
That may be why the prime minister finds it inconvenient when past and present cases of wrongdoing, scandals, sleaze and corruption hit the headlines.
Times of Malta recently reported that a magisterial inquiry into Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi uncovered “corrupt deals” fuelled by major energy contracts and millions of euros in funds “laundered” from Azerbaijan.
Both individuals have by now become household names or notorious, depending on which side of the fence you sit on.
Still, it bears repeating, if anything to underscore the gravity of the matter, that the first had been Joseph Muscat’s most trusted aide. The other was Labour’s star electoral candidate.
It is, therefore, at best an insult to law-abiding citizens, including genuine Labourites, for the prime minister to shrug off such serious inquiry conclusions as more of the same.
At worst, his seemingly nonchalant attitude belies a determination to nurture a culture of impunity and keep a poker face, notwithstanding a long litany of scandals.
It “a story that has been recycled I don’t know how many times… It is painted like a new story but, in fact, it is a very old one,” Abela commented.
Let’s take his word for it, that it is “a very old” story.
“Old” as it may be, the issue remains an open case, still waiting for justice to be done, for the correct political action to be taken to avoid a repeat and for clear messages to be sent by the head of government that misbehaviour – to use a politically correct term – is unacceptable.
There are many other cases like it.
Who can forget Abela’s decision to defend ministers and public officials who helped people get fast-tracked for their driving tests through the back door, on grounds that this is part of the system.
In his recent article titled ‘Abela’s recycled evasions’, opinion writer Ranier Fsadni was correct to speak of “Robert Abela’s intellectual dishonesty when he fobs off questions about the Electrogas report as an endlessly ‘recycled story’. It’s his evasions and his party machine’s lies that are recycled.”
It is important to stress that the truth had hurt Muscat and many of those around him.
The truth led to journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia being blown up in her car for doing her job.
The truth makes journalists’ lives and work all that more dangerous.
The truth pushed the government to have to change the law on magisterial inquiries to make it a more difficult tool for citizens and civil society to use.
The truth, or, rather, the determination not to allow the truth to emerge, has weakened, if not completely neutralised, most of the country’s institutions, notably the police and the attorney general’s office.
Luckily, NGOs, a section of the media and a good many citizens do not mind standing up to be counted.
They will continue to ‘recycle’ their preferred ways for the truth to finally prevail.