A journalist friend of mine recently quoted that famous maxim “don’t believe anything in politics until it’s been denied”. There is a ring of reliability about that maxim – it is after all the first reaction of most politicians to deny the truth until blue in the face. The sentence is undeniably pregnant with generalisations of the conspiracy theory kind yet history (small and big, long and short) has a way of proving it right time and time again. There will always be a denial that is proven right but try as you may to think of an example where denial prevailed you will inevitably end up with a list of lies: from Nixon to Clinton the attempt at drowning the truth with vociferous and indignant denial is long.
It’s not really a lie in most cases. It’s a denial. A denial of the occurrence of a fact – normally couched in sufficiently vague terms that might (I stress the might) allow some leeway at a later stage. That does not seem to be the case with Lawrence Gonzi this morning. The Times’ press digest includes the following: “The Times says that the Prime Minister has denied that Joe Borg was kept in the dark about Malta’s nomination for the European Commission”. Considering how the lady with moles has already implied that Joe Borg was offered an information meeting which he declined to attend we can all see where this is going. No prizes for guessing who the mole was either – I believe Joe Borg has intimated his annoyance at how people directly interested in “gravy train” (their words) posts were directly involved in the decision making.
Now Joe Borg is definitely not out to make friends – which is a pity because he is the amiable kind of politician who you’d rather be hugging than slinging mud at – and he has definitely managed to prod the monsters at the PN spin machine into action. That PM Gonzi has entered the fray with the classic “denial” shows you the priority that Borg-gate is being affforded at Triq Herbert Ganado. Also judging by the insistence at the blogging end of Their Master’s’ Voice to lend a mudslinging hand on this issue one can understand that other “interested parties” are still active in clearing a way for a chance to get their new appointment cleared before this whole mess explodes in the PMs face.
So PM Gonzi denies keeping Joe Borg in the dark about Malta’s nomination. Read that clearly. To me a meeting with Joe Borg leaving him with the merest hint of hope still counts as not leaving Joe Borg in the dark. On the other hand it might be still early in the morning and PM Gonzi never did keep Joe Borg hanging till the last minute and always had John Dalli on his mind as the future, competent EU Commissioner for Malta.
2 replies on “The Truth Behind Denial”
Gonzi’s spokesman denies that PM did not give Borg clear indications. He does not deny that Borg was not informed directly before the announcement was made. Its a play on words
Gonzi said when appointing Dalli that Borg was not even in the running since a change was needed. Therefore either Borg was taken for a ride all along when he was given an indication that he was still being considered or else Gonzi is lying.
On the one hand, it is very hard to disagree with the main thrust of your arguments. But to look at it in another way, one could quite easily posit the opposite view.
That is to say, who can say what is right and/or wrong in this, or indeed, any other situation.
Of course, there are those that will forcefully wish to stick to their viewpoints on this, and all other matters, but should we not question the personal interests from which they derive the almost dogmatic adherence to their opinions?
One might argue conversely, of course, that this in no way bears on the substance of the debate. And who am I to disagree?!! lol
bLESSED bE tHE vIRGIN mARY oF lOURDES!!!