The powerful have for a while now quietly engaged a series of media advisors to work for the various cabinet ministers, whose sole aim is to take care of their public image. The public cost is enormous, and naturally the payments are never properly disclosed to the electorate.
The foreign PR men are experts in spin and crowd psychology and damage management; they are aided by local counterparts who provide them with local data, the national idiosyncrasies and feedback.
If one observes the behaviour of these ministers, it is easy to pick out the rules they have been taught how to evade accountability and how to deal with exposures of government corruption and incompetence when confronted face-to-face with journalists carrying microphones and rolling cameras.
‘Never show anger as it betrays fear.’ ‘Always smile and show a feigned interest in the subject while thinking of a superficial non-sequitur answer that will brush off the attack.’ ‘Always be prepared to use the short, dogmatic, repetitive denial “dik gidba” (“that’s a lie”), or a flat assertion that the journalist’s premise is incorrect – “għandek żball” (“you are mistaken”) – followed by a quick move away to a waiting car while accusing the pesky questioner of being repetitious – “ġa rrispondejtek” (“I already answered you”)’.
During the week in which the Prime Minister’s co-traveller to Baku, Kurt Farrugia, wrote himself out a potential nine-year contract, which is earning him hundreds a day as head of an institution with no need for his line of expertise and basically runs itself, the existence of this over-generous remuneration package was put before the PM. He put on the smile, showed his teeth and called it “a lie”. It is classic Mein Kampf stuff – the more obvious the lie, the more credible it is.
As the days wore on, and the news carried, different ministers and, of course, the army of paid trolls in Castille, tried the more obtuse side-stepping versions of the above.
They would assert that “the previous administration did the same thing” and that people only want to hear about the government’s successes.
They would mention that the criticism posed “is built on jealousy” – “għax tgħiru għalina” – and that the issue is a re-hash of an issue that has already been explained – “kemm se ddum issaqsi fuq l-istess ħaġa?” (“how long will you be asking about the same thing?”). They would even maintain that the financial nitty gritty of a public contract is there for all to check.
So, when the Times of Malta ran a story stating that the Malta Gaming Authority has been without a Board of Governors for months and Parliamentary Secretary Silvio Schembri was asked about this, he simply answered “you are mistaken” again and again, refusing to elaborate where the supposed mistake was.
And he did it with that mandatory arrogant smile as he turned to his waiting taxpayer-funded transport.
The PR experts have also told Muscat and his cabinet that they must never show disunity.
Image is all about portraying a strong team behind a stronger infallible leader. It’s the very essence of papal dogma, and it works.
In order to plausibly describe critics as traitors of the State, the party must wear the mask of a clean collective conscience.
The more obvious the lie, the more credible it is
So, when asked about the millions lost to the anonymous Vitals owners, the Finance Minister sweeps it under the carpet as mere gossip, while the PM himself refuses to “prejudice investigations that are ongoing” by commenting.
The rest of the Cabinet just pretend they never heard of VGH, 17 Black, Mossack Fonseca, Nexia BT, Panama, Dubai, Baku, Socar, MacBridge, the ITS giveaway, BVI, Willerby Inc, Pilatus Bank, Ali Sadr’s arrest, and the long list of six years of lost millions.
But the PR jockeys also taught Muscat to know when his storyline starts to stink so much that his own grassroot base starts to get fed up with it and that he has to fabricate a new scenario.
When MP Glenn Bedingfield came out against the plans for a purposely grotesque-looking student hostel in historic Senglea, and was quickly copied by Minister for Education Evarist Bartolo, the country sat back in disbelief.
Have these MPs actually found the courage to criticise and detract from the brilliance of the so-called American University of Malta? I think not.
The truth is that they saw a growing swell of public discontent at a foreigner being given more public land owned and freely used by the local community for parking their boats and cars. It could not be ignored. In came the PR experts and advised them how to turn it into a win-win situation.
Firstly, go in line with public interest and pressure the Planning (Puppet) Authority to reject the hostel application.
That done, run the propaganda that government has again listened to the public. And, finally, one Sunday in the near future, the PM can announce that the AUM’s galloping expansion and brilliant success has forced the government to give Sadeen the green light to start laying concrete on the 31,000 square metres of ODZ at Żonqor Point. Naturally, the PA will issue the multi-purpose permit as soon as possible.
The PM and Cabinet have also been told to never admit to any wrongdoing, even if caught red handed with pants around the ankles in full view of the public.
Any justification, even one totally ridiculous or incredibly false, has merit. As explained in Animal Farm, normal people are restricted in that they tend to judge others by their own honest standards.
Minister Konrad Mizzi’s accountants spent over $10,000 to set up a complex, layered, secret, tax free, unaudited, offshore trust and company which cynical professionals viewed as an act of corruption. What did the PR experts tell him to do?
They said, “Konrad, as you stand there guilty of a blatant breach of tax laws, forget the idea of reciting St Francis of Assisi on Saviour Balzan’s current affairs programme asking for forgiveness.
“A better idea is to organise a false narrative around carrying out an audit on what cannot be audited”.
And they chose the better idea.
So, Malta, keep footing the bill for these PR gimmicks and tricks so that impunity can reign over the land for years to come and when all things beautiful and rare have been sold or stolen from you, you can sit back and wonder why in the name of Panama you let it happen.