I don’t really believe in punishments. When my daughter was little and she misbehaved, I just asked her to take the time to think about what she did and apologise. But – and here comes the crux – it had to be a heartfelt apology.
“Fine! Sorry then” did not cut it, she had to go and reflect until she truly understood the consequences of her actions. Only then, and once she herself came up with a solution to rectify the damage, we’d put the whole incident behind us. In her own words: “It’s so much easier if you just ban the telly.”
I thought of this quite a bit since the report on the inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia came out. The word ‘apology’ has been bandied about a few times and it seems very much to me that none of those who have uttered it really know what it means to be repentant.
In Maltese, we have a beautiful semitic word for it: maħfra. Pronouncing the phrase titlob maħfra – I ask for your forgiveness – requires you to sound the ‘ħ’ from deep within, which means it’s hard to enunciate unless you truly mean it. In fact, on close inspection you’ll realise that the main inquiry culprits are making use of the Latin-derived, legalese word apoloġija in their half-mumbling attempts at saying sorry to the nation for creating a culture of impunity which led to Daphne’s killing.
Take the President of Malta, George Vella. Instead of a wise old man for president, we have a narcissist who reacts to his own people’s disappointment by publishing lists of people he met to show how hard he works. He stubbornly refuses to do the one thing expected of him for this nation to start healing: visit the site where Daphne was killed and pay his respects, like other foreign presidents have done before him, on the spot which has become symbolical of the threat to Malta’s democracy.
The inquiry report has made it very clear that Daphne was killed because of what she wrote – so now the president has run out of his “maybe that was not the case” excuse. Which means one thing: our president is not really concerned about the state healing from this national trauma, all he cares for is his rotten champagne socialist party.
And that includes his beloved protégé, Joseph Muscat, who recently decided it was time to plug himself a bit in the papers with a long-overdue interview.
Much could be written about the deep-forehead-furrow lie detector but I’ll just stick to one comment he made. When the Times of Malta asked him: “You are a family man and a father. What message do you have for the Caruana Galizia family?” his reply came with conditions:
1. “I hope that, just as I accepted the outcome of this inquiry, they too accept the outcome of the Egrant inquiry.”
2. “If they want an apology, I will make one, I won’t try to avoid that.”
It’s not even tantamount to “Fine! Sorry then!” It’s a “They want a sorry? Orrajt, I’ll say sorry filkas, as long as they shut their mouth over the other stuff.”
Joseph Muscat has chosen to turn a blind eye (or more) to criminals in his midst and is now turning his lies into a semblance of virtue- Kristina Chetcuti
A psychology student can write a whole dissertation about it. Obviously, Muscat needs to go back to his room, preferably a locked one, to reflect on his actions and consequences. Although I’m not sure he can do that because the man clearly smirked his way through childhood misbehaviour.
Clearly, the disgraced former prime minister convinced himself that he has done a great deed; something historic for which he’s going to be admired by future generations. But the basic truth is that he has chosen to turn a blind eye (or more) to criminals in his midst and is now turning his lies into a semblance of virtue.
Of course, he knows he has the whole Super One (and the state broadcaster TVM) propaganda mill behind him. For decades on end, the channel and its party have been poisoning the minds of Maltese people. Viewers have been repeatedly deceived, indoctrinated, brainwashed and manipulated. Wrongdoing has been passed off as good. Super One has built a context that made the inconceivable murder of a journalist very likely to happen.
Which brings me neatly to Robert Abela, the prime minister, who has also uttered an apology of sorts. But words are just fluff really, he must act remorseful too. He needs to come up with a solution to at least try and rectify the damage. He doesn’t need to wrack his brains. By doing two very simple things, he has the power to put an end to all the brainwashing and dehumanisation that is still being fanned by his predecessor:
1. The prime minister can tell the masses listening in to his Sunday political sermon that Daphne was a human being like them and not a witch as Super One made her out to be and that they have to stop seeing the Caruana Galizia family as the enemy of the state.
2. The prime minister can order his media editors to stop manipulating their news features and encouraging viewers to hate all those upholding justice and to stop masquerading wrongdoing by the former leader and his mates as something honourable.
Malta has been doped up on years of propaganda and the prime minister has the power to switch that off once and for all. Only then will this country be able to start breathing again. And if there is no one poisoning our minds, our humanist spirit will revive because most people deep down are decent.
But the healing has to start with deeds not words.
twitter: @krischetcuti