Tact is defined as the ‘skill and sensitivity in dealing with others or with difficult issues’. It’s an easy enough concept to understand, though not always an easy one to put into practice. But if there is one person who truly – and I mean TRULY– needs to master this skill, it is Prime Minister Robert Abela. There is honestly nothing more cringeworthy than listening to his Sunday sermons, when he makes Malta sound like the Garden of Eden right before the serpent coaxed Eve into taking a bite out of the forbidden fruit.
Yet, for all the things he says, the worst is when he uses other people’s tragedies to bolster his credentials, like when last Sunday he said something along the lines of, ‘We are living in heaven’ when compared to the way the coronavirus pandemic has affected places like Spain, Germany, France, Libya, and Sicily.
To some, this may have been something to celebrate, but let’s just be clear: this is neither true, nor tactful.
For a start, how is using other people’s plight at the hands of a global pandemic a good way of showing how well we are faring? If anything, it truly shows the kind of shallowness that we celebrate: you’re worse off than I am, which makes me feel better about myself. I don’t know about you, but I derive no joy or satisfaction from the knowledge that more people are dying or are in distress in other countries than there are in mine. Also, last time I checked, this was not a good way of promoting healthy and friendly international relations: if Malta thinks it will never need the help of other nations, it is gravely mistaken.
Secondly, I didn’t know ‘heaven’, which is where Abela thinks and says we are living, would have so many problems. Our COVID-related deaths have more than quadrupled over the past few months. Registering over 100 new diagnoses a day is now normal. Old people still have to choose between living longer and seeing their loved ones. And that’s not to mention that in a survey conducted by the Malta Chamber of SMEs, two-thirds of the small businesses that took part said they didn’t think they’d still be around in the next 12 months.
If this is what Abela is referring to when he says that we are ‘doing better’ thanks, in part, to the ‘decisions [they] took’, then maybe it would be a good idea for him to take a step back and look at the real picture. Malta could have been heaven if it followed the example of much larger and more populated but equally isolated nations like Australia and New Zealand, which didn’t let their tourism and construction lobbies dictate when restrictions should be lifted or borders be opened. Instead, the prime minister decided not to take much action so we’d supposedly look good, rather than foolish, in the eyes of investors once the pandemic is over – who cares if both your grandparents die alone and are hastily buried? Tough luck, Chuck.
Tact, Prime Minister Abela, is not some snowflaky concept. Tact is what you should use not to make people who are already suffering feel worse.
Your speeches should start by passing on sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones, or do they not matter anymore?
Your speeches should continue by extending those condolences to our cousins and neighbours in other nations, or is it only when we need something that we suck up to foreigners?
Your speeches should then move on to explaining how you are planning to sort the situation out, both in terms of COVID and in terms of a struggling economy, without literally telling us that you’d rather sell us down the drain than inconvenience or upset foreign investors. We do have a brain and we can decipher what you’re saying, you know?
Honestly. If this country is heaven, then Saint Peter ought to be sacked for letting the clowns in.
