Ian Paisley Jnr — friend of Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson — resigned as a junior minister in 2008 following suspect dealings with a property developer; triple-jobbed as an MLA, a junior minister and paid researcher for Ian Paisley Snr; made an “administrative hiccup” when he said that he was the owner of a holiday home which turned out to be owned by the developer’s wife; remains under investigation by the electoral commission for the sponsoring of a table (costing £1,500) at a constituency fundraiser; controversially retweeted a tweet by Katie Hopkins which connected the murder rate in London to the Muslim population; on learning that David Trimble had a political aide who was gay described it as “immoral, offensive and obnoxious” and in the same year, in an interview with Hot Press magazine, described himself as being “repulsed by gay and lesbianism” and that people who are gay “harm themselves and – without caring about it – harm society.”

His most recent scandal, which he initially denied, is the non-disclosure of significant expenses in relation to trips to Sri Lanka for, in-part, what seems to be the promotion of “significant arrangements” that he has with oil companies in Oman and Nigeria; all the more controversial because of Sri Lanka’s human rights record including the shelling of so-called ‘safe-zone’ during the civil war, systematic executions and the widely broadcast footage of dead female Tamil fighters being loaded on to a truck.

According to Amnesty International, the authorities continued to detain and torture Tamils. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka said that it had “continued to document widespread incidents of violence against detainees, including torture and other ill-treatment, which it described as “routine” and practiced throughout the country, mainly by police.” Impunity persists for “excessive use of force against protesters. Killings by the army of unarmed demonstrators demanding clean water in August 2013 had yet to be prosecuted.”

There have been numerous enforced disappearances that the government has continuously failed to deal with. “Attempts by families to arrange stones as memorials for lost relatives were stopped by security forces. Catholic priest Elil Rajendram was detained and other residents of Mullaitivu were subjected to police harassment following their efforts to hold memorials for family members who died during the armed conflict.” There is continued discrimination as “law enforcement officials continued to subject members of the Tamil minority, particularly former members of the LTTE, to ethnic profiling, surveillance, and harassment.” Impunity persists “for various forms of violence against women and girls, including child marriage, domestic violence, human trafficking, rapes by military or law enforcement officers or assaults by private actors.”

In Parliament last week Paisley offered what the Belfast Telegraph described as an “emotional apology.” Describing the events as a “personal embarrassment” he said that his God “had already forgiven him” and that he believes “in politicians that can admit human frailty, that can apologise, can mean it and can move on – because that’s what real life is all about.” 

I am sure that politics would be better if politicians were more open and vulnerable about their frailties; more willing to admit those failings and where necessary apologise — apologise in full; full recognition of their failings; demonstrating a full, complete and detailed understanding of what they have done and communicate those failings clearing to demonstrate that they have an understanding of what it is they are seeking forgiveness for — this Paisley has not done. A bullish interview with the Ballymena Guardian rendered last week’s parliamentary apology cheap and meaningless.

If an apology is nothing more than the exorcising of one’s own shame then it is an apology to nobody but yourself. This is not an apology; it is guilt management, the kind of dinosaur politics that, in our nation, has become all too familiar — a kind of politics that offers us little hope for the future. At the end of his apology, Paisley quoted from the Christian New Testament. The same book says that “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Perhaps a revised version is more pertinent: you will do the truth, and the truth will set you free.