Sorry is just the beginning

Neither of my parents are moral theologians, so, I imagine most people reading this had similar core principles drummed into them from a young age: don’t lie, don’t hurt others (or kill them) and don’t steal. If you do the first one, others won’t trust you and the last two could earn you a jail sentence.

When my friend took sweets from the sweet shop because her mother wouldn’t buy them for her because she had been naughty, her mother made her go back to the shop, apologise to the shopkeeper  and pay for them out of her pocket money. My mother would have probably done the same. Perhaps many people in this country didn’t have the same upbringing or they’ve decided theft is okay, depending on who does it.

In 2022, Arnold Cassola called for an investigation into the minister for tourism and public cleanliness’s then-girlfriend’s employment. Cassola alleged that Amanda Muscat, who originally was Clayton Bartolo’s private secretary but was then promoted to his consultant, had been transferred to the Gozo ministry and was not turning up for work.

Cassola’s complaint was taken up by the parliament’s committee for standards in public life, and a damning 40-page report was published showing that Muscat did not have the necessary qualifications for the job, nor did she do any consultancy work. In fact, she had continued to work as a private secretary with a consultant’s salary even when the Gozitan ministry employed her. All this to the tune of tens of thousands of euros a year.

After all this was unveiled, I’m pretty sure no one was waiting with bated breath for fabled resignations to come forward. We all know that rarely happens here. But what I wasn’t expecting was for the prime minister to come forward and say that the tourism minister’s simple sorry for the mess made was sufficient.

Who is protecting the nation’s interests?- Anna Marie Galea

Yes, you heard that right. Thousands of taxpayers’ money have been found to have been misappropriated and, instead of our prime minister coming out against this travesty and, at least, demanding the money back, the electorate gets a feeble apology. And, then, we wonder why Bartolo thought this was a good idea to begin with.

What makes all this even worse is the blistering double standards applied in the prime minister’s own house. When former education minister Justyne Caruana was in a similar pickle regarding a contract awarded to someone close to her, she resigned. Why should things be any different in this case? When reports are published, and we are no longer talking about rumour and conjecture, what is the point of having all these commissions and committees if we ignore their findings? Who is protecting the nation’s interests?

We shouldn’t have to live in a country where being homeless and stealing a can of tuna gets you sent to prison but, then, funnelling the public’s money into your significant other’s bank account gets you less than a cordial slap on the wrist. And, please, please save me the sickly narrative of no one being perfect. Our jail is full of people who probably would have done things differently if they could go back in time and I don’t see anyone letting them out early just because they’ve expressed regret.

That ‘sorry’ should have been the mere start of a sentence, not the whole thing.