Mark Camilleri, “biex tiskonġra, trid tkun pur.”
By Marica Micallef
Mark Camilleri prides himself that his blogpost carries power:
So, he uses his blogpost to exert this power like when he lashed against Rosianne Cutajar and when he waged war against the current executive chairman of the National Book Council. Before we dive into this, we must go back to 2021 when Camilleri, lashed out at his successor, who also happened to carry his same name, arguing that “he is being denied a lifetime award.”[1]
Camilleri had used harsh language to drive home his frustration, starting off his “reply all” email by telling his successor to “shove your words of praise up yours.”
Like a baby crying while desperately looking for his mother’s nipple to suck milk, Camilleri gave a long rant showing how he had been “dishonourably discharged” “from his role and listed a number of achievements and contributions he said he was responsible for.” What humility!
Camilleri criticized the newly appointed book council, stating that it was full of Labour Party loyalists and claiming that despite his contributions to the industry, they had decided not to give him a lifetime achievement award in literature. But wasn’t he appointed by the Labour Party in 2013? Wasn’t he a Labour loyalist at the time?
He added that his successor was not fit-for-purpose to be the National Book Council chairman, being a schoolmaster by profession. So, what made you qualified Mark? O, beware, Mark, “of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” [Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello, Act 3, Scene 3]
Camilleri forgot to add that the current head of the National Book Council is also an author of the series “L-Ispettur Gallo”: Prima Facie (2010), Volens (2010), Nex (2016), and Alias (2021).
Camilleri thinks that only he is qualified and deserving of this role. Camilleri claimed that “the government was trying to erase his own legacy.” Praise the Lord, Hallelujah!
Like a man who studies revenge to keep his wounds green, Camilleri went on a revenge road-trip with his revengeful rant in his blog entitled “The Executive Chairman of the National Book Council shows his support to authors”,[2] where he describes his successor as a “political appointee who has no experience working in the book industry and is also my namesake, having been placed selectively into the entity that I built from scratch to bury my legacy.” Double humility from a political appointee himself!
He further adds that his successor “is a little worm whose feet are too small for my shoes.” Triple humility from a worm that wants to live in his hosts.
He believes that our public institutions are being taken-over by “criminals and rent-seekers under an autocratic system” as was the situation when he was elected as Executive Chairman of the National Book Council. But isn’t he also a rent-seeker? He had added that since he was “Malta’s best-selling author and therefore, by law, a major stakeholder of the National Book Council, then his successor is obliged by law to protect and defend his interests”.
This is the typical attitude of narcissism where a narcissist paints a picture of himself as always being the victim while thinking that the world owes him something and that it must go on its knees to lick his arse!
“Throughout my tenure, I built from the National Book Council a public entity that defends and celebrates authors and free speech. There may probably be no guesses why I was purged and replaced with a Labour Ġaħan. The entity is now just another bastion for rent-seeking and Labour propaganda.”
Mark, “biex tiskonġra, trid tkun pur.” You leave a lot to be desired so do this country a favour, stop being the worm that is trying to live in your targeted hosts and do a purging journey of healing, maturity, and humility. Then send some CVs, like normal people do, and get a job. The how, the who and the what about the current National Book Council is not your business anymore. Learn how to move on, like mature adults do.
You remind me of Ramasses II, or Ozymandias, “of cold command” in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem which ends with:
“‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
[1] https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/former-book-council-head-lashes-out-at-successor-and-demands-lifetime.907081
[2] https://markcamilleri.org/2022/03/27/the-executive-chairman-of-the-national-book-council-shows-his-support-to-authors/
‘Biex tiskonġra trid tkun pur’ is a saying that keeps Malta where it is because it expects perfection, which is impossible, so Malta keeps living in a cesspit.
The Italians have an excellent proverb which is the opposite: ‘L’ottimo è nemico del bene’. If we strive for perfection, we’ll never find it; but if we strive to be better, we can make it, only of course if we accept that all people have defects, and that we need to judge on degree, for example, whether to ally ourselves with defective people to dislodge criminals from power.
In no way did I write the Maltese proverb to make the word “pur” be understood as “perfect”. Is it why you go by that Italian proverb instead of showing your name? So to use it as you please? No one is perfect. Only God is. I do not spoonfeed people in my blogs. God endowed us with inquistive minds which is a gift. Our minds should not be sponges.
Defective? What do you mean by defective? In order to dislodge criminals from power, one neither breaks the law (anyone who breaks the law is a criminal); does not resort to hate and spite; does not go on a revenge trip; does not exhibit hypocrisy; does not seek rent; and does not become part of a coalition which thinks is above the law. The people who are being chosen to dislodge criminals from power are perfect in God’s eyes because they stand on their own. Mark Camilleri is not one of those people and in the future, this story will come back to haunt him and the coalition. What would you all say if I had to be given an optimum position at Mater Dei for example, with a super salary, when I have been mentioning it in my blogs regarding the story of my dad? I would look, rightly so, a gakbina and lose all credibility as a human seeking justice.