The origin of the proverb “Silence is golden, speech is silver” is contested. Some say that it hails from ancient Egypt. But today many know it through the 1831 translation by the 19th century Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle. There is a similar proverb in the Maltese language stating that even if words were to be precious stones, silence would still be more precious.

There is silence and silence. When silence is the result of prudence it could be golden but when silence is the result of fear it is toxic for the individual and society. US President Abraham Lincoln expressed this succinctly but powerfully: “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” The late Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor, who knows more than a thing or two about unjust suffering, used to say that “silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented”.

In the past few days we were given a number of examples of the toxicity of silence induced by fear and other types of silence.

Last Tuesday the Times of Malta informed its readers that the only witness in a case of fraud against one of those accused of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia kept his silence, saying that he was scared to testify. The witness had emigrated to Australia and when asked to testify by the Australian Federal Police he refused saying that the persons against whom he would be testifying would seek retribution against him or his family in Malta. This silence clearly propelled by fear meant that the court was left with no evidence and acquitted the accused.

There was a person who had revealed to journalists of The Daphne Project a meeting between a politician (who denied the allegation) and one of those accused of the murder of Caruana Galizia. A paper reported that this person has now retracted his story. Was this a sincere conversion or another case of fear-propelled silence?

There is a worse kind of silence than that motivated by fear of criminals. This is a silence caused by fear of possible retribution by government. 

Arthur Muscat, a former president of the Malta Employers’ Association, in an opinion piece penned in the Times of Malta of October 25 confirmed its existence. He lamented the silence of business people who, when faced by what they perceive as an unjust tender award, remain passively silent.  

The government is using a carrot and stick approach to silence criticism

Muscat expressed his bewilderment that a tender for a fast ferry service was not won by an experienced seafaring company but by a company set up by a food processing firm only a couple of days before the tender’s closing date. He said that what was unusual in this case was not the “bewildering” way the tender was won – bewildering happenings have become the norm in Malta, he said – but the fact that those who lost the tender are fighting the case in court.

He rightly said that Malta needs business leaders who stand up for their rights when required. Silence in such cases does not only betray the business community but it betrays all taxpayers.

It is very serious indeed when people remain silent and don’t fight for their rights because they are afraid that the government will retaliate. Unfortunately this fear-driven silence is on the increase. The government is using a carrot and stick approach to silence criticism.

In most cases it uses carrots and treats to buy people’s silence. The stick is reserved for fewer people. Their number is big enough to warn others but small enough to make an outcry difficult. I know of at least one case when a business man was unceremoniously told that he should be intelligent enough to know what he has to do to get government contracts. Some media organisations will tell you that government adverts fill the coffers of their competitors more than they fill theirs.

Many times the stick is not wielded officially by government. The Facebook army of trolls is more often let loose on anyone who dares to criticise more than the rationed amount of criticism that is felt to be allowable.

The Times of Malta on Thursday published a story of another kind of silence. Parliamentary Secretary Agius Decelis has kept mum since September when the paper asked him to explain why a company has been given a direct order for €300,000 each month since 2015. As has happened in other cases this company was only set up a very short time before these regular direct orders started to be given.

The paper estimates that this company has been given around €7,000,000 in direct orders. During the last legislature Agius Decelis had a very attractive remuneration package tailor made for him. Although today his salary is paid by taxpayers he opted for silence when he was faced by this scandal.

This is definitively not fear-driven silence. It is probably a shame-driven one; something certainly not golden.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece