WATCH: ’Even Politicians Make Mistakes’: Joseph Muscat Opens Up In New Ben Camille Interview
People must get used to the fact that politicians, like everyone else, make mistakes too, former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said in a new, candid interview with Maltese TV household name and influencer Ben Camille.
“Something we must all get used to in all sectors of life is that everyone makes mistakes,” Muscat said on Ben’s new online show Have A Seat.
“I really didn’t like the whole concept of a politician, or anyone else, who can never make a mistake. I made too many mistakes to mention, everyday things, not things that hit the news.”
He said he was particularly disappointed that he forced certain people to resign and that these decisions hugely impacted him on a personal level.
“I have already said publicly that there were cases where I told someone to resign and now believe it was a mistake. Contrarily, I should have told certain people to resign and I didn’t.”
Although he didn’t delve into the topic further in this interview, Muscat said last year that he regretted forcing Manuel Mallia and Michael Falzon to resign as minister and not taking action against his chief of staff Keith Schembri and former minister Konrad Mizzi.
Muscat spent six years as Prime Minister of Malta before resigning in 2019 in the wake of a political crisis triggered by the arrest of Yorgen Fenech for the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
@lovinmaltaofficial Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat returns for a very rare interview. What do you make of what he says are his mistakes? 🧐 #fyp #josephmuscat #malta
His interview with Ben Camille largely steered away from politics and the Caruana Galizia murder, focusing more on his past as an “uncool” youth, his previous struggles with clinical obesity and his family life.
However, it did provide some insights into Muscat’s way of thinking during his time in office, including his take on how he managed to master the skill of public speaking.
“It’s not about stooping down to people’s levels (tinżel ghall-livell tan-nies)… that phrase really bugged me… but about remaining on their level,” he said.
“Some think that they should use big words so that people will be impressed at their intelligence, but then people wouldn’t understand what they would have actually said.”
“My grandmother was a working mother and had a relatively low level of formal eduction, but she was very intelligent and I learned a lot from her. I always kept her in mind and asked myself when speaking if my grandmother would understand what I’m saying. I believe people want this humanity.”
The former Prime Minister also expanded further on his take on social media, after stating during a Times of Malta interview that politicians should pay less attention to social media and more attention to people.
“When you want an argument with a person, you don’t engage with an avatar but with a person,” he said in his new interview. “I often compare engaging with a social media profile to engaging with someone via a letter. It’s not necessarily what that person thinks but what that person wants you think that he thinks.”
“I visited many każini when I was starting out in politics and people there would say so many things about what they’d do [in your position]… you’d hear all the Hercules of the earth coming down for a fight.”
“However, when you speak to the same people one on one in a more relaxed setting, they’ll tell you that they realised they said something stupid back then.”
“I believe that nowadays it’s become practically a luxury, which is wrong, and that people simply engage with each other online. I think online should be simply an introduction and the real engagement should be face to face.”
What do you think of Ben Camille’s interview with Joseph Muscat?
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