Fatal mistakes

Those who deal with politics know all too well that, judging from international experience, cover-ups are often far more disastrous than revealing the truth.

Government and local officials first tried to convince us that the way they handled the fire was flawless.

Now they are trying to put the blame on others and drafting their own narrative and timeline of events. But the government bears a huge responsibility as investigations by judicial authorities and the media have revealed great contradictions and fatal mistakes.

An acknowledgment of guilt and the removal of those who are to blame would have been cathartic. But this did not happen, as the purveyors of the view that the best defense is offense prevailed. The results of this line of thinking are there for all to see.