Sorry is the hardest word…

Gonzi is obviously not a thief and if gave the impression that he is one, this was clearly a grave mistake on my part.

... but sometimes it has to be said all the same.

Last week I wrote a blog-post entitled 'My, what sound principles' - you can read it for yourself, a few blog-posts below this one - and though I will stand by much of that article, I now realise it was written in a moment of anger... and let's face it, that is never a very wise thing to do.

Much has been said and written about it in the meantime, and given the flurry of comments and dirty looks I have since received, I decided to go back and check what all the fuss was about.

Hmm, well, yes, I fear that particular blog-post did contain a few rather outrageous exaggerations, for which an apology to Dr Lawrence Gonzi is now very clearly in order.

But first, a few clarifications. It is true that equipment went missing from government offices in the transfer of power; though I admit I exaggerated the scale of this misdemeanour by extending it (in what I can only describe as a 'lapsus' on my part) also to the office furniture.

It is NOT true, however, that this theft was carried out by Lawrence Gonzi in person. And if the fact that I suggested as much were not in itself borderline lunacy, I might be tempted to defend it only on the grounds that it would at least make a good cartoon. (I can see it already: Gonzi as one of the Gaffarena Brothers, making off with the sofas and the chandelier...)

Sadly, however, it IS borderline lunacy to suggest such a ridiculous thing, and even I - borderline lunatic that I am - can fully understand that.

The only explanation (I won't call it a 'defence', because it isn't one) for the slip-up is that I evidently took the concept of ministerial responsibility for the actions of underlings several billion steps too far.

In any case, Gonzi is obviously not a thief of the kind I very foolishly implied in that article. And if gave the impression that he is one, this was clearly a grave mistake on my part.

As for the other bits - especially the part where I quote Robert Arrigo's claims that a 10th district candidate may have used public funding - that it is a different story, and I stand by all the other assertions made in the rest of the article.

But not the part about Gonzi being a thief. That part I would ideally like to go back in time and 'unwrite', if only it were possible to do so. Sadly, however, it is not possible to do anything of the kind. So I can only do the next best thing, which is to fully retract the statement, and - for what it's worth - extend sincere apologies to Lawrence Gonzi for any offence caused.

And I really mean that, by the way...

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While I appreciate the point of your apology.It remains a fact that through his leadership, toghether with his crew he failed miserably to give a better choice to all voters.Saying he concentrated upon the bigger picture is an admission that one does not know how to manage.
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medsun - It is not my job to investigate illegalities. You;re mixing me up with the police. And david, it is not actually a first (though obviously i wish it was) - but i've been writing articles for over 15 years and i have made mistakes in my time. I apologised to Dun Ang Seychell for mistakenly attributing a quote to him during the divorce referendum, for instance. I'd like to think that if i make a similar mistake in future I'll have no problem apologising again.
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"But not the part about Gonzi being a thief." No Raphael, I feel you were only partly wrong, and yes perhaps rather hasty and strong worded, but given the circumstances who would not have been. (1) Lawrence Gonzi did steal at least one whole year from our lives by capriciously delaying an election that was clearly crying to be held. His self importance and arrogance literally had him ignore completely the national interest. All for his interests, his Ministers' and various hangers on. So much wrong was done in that year that Gonzi MUST pay, and the electors have so voted. Gonzi's punishment must not be only resigning and not bidding again for re-election to the PN's leadership. I believe he has weakened and thrown the Nationalist party into such disarray as to threaten the balance of democratic power in this nation. (2) Also, I cannot believe that there was not some coordinated effort at destabilising the nation, via the oblivion of a civilised handover. After all, it is the nation's interests we are talking about, not the interest of a select group. Moreover, this could easily have been foreseen and stopped as it did occur gradually and consistently over several days before D-Day! What is more important, than some furniture and equipment, would be all that data contained in hard and electronic copy!!! What was there so important to hide and possibly destroy? In conclusion, Gonzi might not have been an actual thief, but potentially a weak, failed mastermind that was too taken up with his self importance to care about the nation's interests. AND, I FEEL, THOSE WERE THE SENTIMENTS THAT YOUR WORDS EXPRESSED IN THAT POST!
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Emmanuel Mallia
All at PN, including Gonzi are ignoring the fact that the party was, and possibly still is being run by a very low profile dictatorship duo !
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In the same vein should you not investigate if Mr Arrigo outspent the other candidates on his district with daily parties and the like? Well outside the legal spending limits. Im not saying he is guilty - just saying you should check all facts before chucking assertions that benefit one against the other.
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Besides a sorry to the PM you also owe one to your readers who normally trust your comments. The way you wrote the article intimated that you had incontrovertible evidence on what you wrote. Some of us demanded strong action by the police in a way we would never have done if we had dnot believed you. However there are some lessons to be learned from the incident. Firstly that there is no smooth mechanism in place for the transfer of power from one administration to another. It seems that this does not even occur where there is a change of minister of the same party. Abroad civil servants aid to perform a seamless transition so that there is continuity in government business. Indeed civil servants are assigned with the opposition party so that in the case of a change of government business continues without a break. The second issue of concern is the way leased computers are returned to the lessor be it MITA or a private contrators. There seems to be no proper fool proof procedures to safeguard the data in them to ensure it never leaves the department where it was generated. Even if it is only potentially accessible in MITA it would be a breach of the Data protection act especially where the citizen is concerned. A few lessons to be learned by all .
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Ok Raph he didn't steal the furniture but he stole 5 years from our life time. And in my opinion that is really worse and no punishment will ever bring the last wasted years.
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LOL! Now that's a first mate!