Things have come to a pretty pass when Maltese journalists have to go to the Qatar Petroleum website for information they won’t get from the Maltese government
I had to go to the Qatar Petroleum website to find out that Shiv Nair (full name: Pradeep/Pradip Shivshanker Nair) was in Qatar last July with Malta’s energy minister Konrad Mizzi.
It is from that website, too, that I find Konrad Mizzi and Pradip Shivshanker Nair went together to Qatar Petroleum HQ, where they had a meeting with the president of Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation and with big cheeses from Qatar Petroleum itself (of course, they were the hosts) and from Qatar Petroleum International.
This is utter madness. Pradip Shivshanker Nair (known nowadays by the shorter form of his name, Shiv Nair) is CHINA’S deal-broker for non-democratic states.
CHINA’S, not Malta’s. Even in Malta, he works for China – hence the China/Enemalta deal and God knows what else still to surface. The fact that he got himself, via his three-year courtship of Joseph Muscat, a position as consultant to Malta Enterprise and to the Malta government in general does not mean he works for Malta.
That position allows him to work even more effectively for China, and by joining Malta government delegations to non-democratic states, he has an even more efficient way in…for CHINA. And for himself and his other deals.
Qatar Petroleum is very clear about the fact that Shiv Nair was presented to them as “the consultant to the Maltese prime minister”. Way to go – just the sort of consultant you would expect the prime minister of an EU member state NOT to have: a man who brokers shady, suspect deals for China in dictatorships and undeveloped nations.
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QATAR PETROLEUM
Doha, Qatar • 22 July 2013 – His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry, met today with His Excellency Mr. Konrad Mizzi, Minister of Energy and Conservation of Water of the Republic of Malta, and his accompanying delegation.
Talks during the meeting covered means to enhance cooperation in the energy sector between the two countries and other issues of mutual interest.
The meeting, which was held at Qatar Petroleum headquarters, was attended by H.E. Eng. Essa bin Hilal Al-Kuwari, President of Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (KAHRAMAA) as well as by senior Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) executives. The meeting was also attended by Mr. Shiv Nair, the consultant to the Maltese Prime Minister and a delegation of Maltese officials.
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http://www.qp.com.qa/en/Homepage/MediaCentre/News/13-07-22/Energy_and_Industry_Minister_holds_discussions_with_Maltese_Minister_of_Energy_and_Conservation_of_Water.aspx
Yet Konrad Mizzi would have us believe he is whiter than white. As pure as the driven snow.
He’s as bad as the rest of the sorry Labour lot.
Meanwhile:
“(Konrad Mizzi) did not confirm the 35 per cent figure mentioned by fellow minister Edward Zammit Lewis saying that figure was hypothetical and Dr Zammit Lewis had only been giving an example of minority shareholding.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130927/local/dire-situation-at-enemalta-explained-to-employees.488012
The government is now beyond the ridiculous.
From now on, every time a parliamentary secretary or minister, speaks in public, we have to wonder whether it’s hypothetical or factual.
Board representation is usually proportionate to investment holding. Konrad Mizzi doesn’t know how much China will pay or how much of Enemalta China will get, but he already knows that the Chinese will have three seats on Enemalta’s board.
Or was that just a hypothetical example?
Mr Shiv Nair fills a perfect position for the Malta Government.
The Labour administration is ably fulfilling its promise to take Malta to a different direction – that of fast returning it to a dictatorship-led, under developed country the Socialists of the ‘golden years’ left the country in 1987.
Joseph Muscat made such a fuss about Roberto Memmo. Even wrote a book about him. Well, Memmo pales into insignificance when compared to Shiv Nair.
If Shiv Nair was presented to Qatar Petroleum as “the consultant to the Maltese Prime Minister” and the internet is replete with references to Shiv Nair being called “China’s secret weapon” because he represents China in its shady deals with undemocratic regimes, then does it follow that the Maltese Prime Minister is also working for China?
And finally it drops.
Just as “Pradeep Nair, known as Shiv” represents China but picks up a tiny consultancy fee from Malta Enterprise just the same, how can one ever be sure who else – or which other groupings – has/have “invested” a fee for success with the Chinese on whatever project, and what the personal return is expected to be?
If the investors with a local Malta connection have a Board position where this would be considered unethical, do we consider the rest of that Board, whether international or local, to be a willing player?
What is Borg Marks meant to be an expert on?
If the Prime Minister, himself, is also working for China where and how much was his down-payment and where and how are the installments paid?
How many people are running charitable projects in Africa?
Honestly, there are always other options but doing away with transparency was a convenient way of getting the plane to land upside down.
A few wild guesses:
the down payment was electoral campaign finance, directly or indirectly;
the installments are paid in votes that got Muscat into power – not bought votes, mind you, just those of the wilfully blind and the genuinely ignorant.
Mintoff had sold Malta to Gaddafi who then controlled Malta’s foreign policy directly for a decade and a half, and indirectly after that.
Muscat would have continued the tradition if Gaddafi hadn’t inconveniently been deposed. He’d already signed an agreement with Gaddafi a week after becoming Leader of the Opposition, flew back in a private jet courtesy of Gaddafi, and boasted about it on his return.
Gaddafi was deposed. China wasn’t.
Same news here.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Meet-the-Michelles-20130927
Who is feeding this sh*t to the media?
[Daphne – Maltatoday’s report is marginally more honest: she “attended a luncheon hosted by”]
The DOI, as fed by Kurt Farrugia.
He’s also known as Shiv Shankaran Nair, Shiv Preyan Shanker, Shiv Preyan Shanker Nair, Shiv Shanker, and there be even more variations.
Is this Shiv Shankaran Nairsome sort of Charlie from Charlie’s angels, being so invisible in today’s day and age is beyond me
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars-world-cup-slaves
Dan min meta Konrad Mizzi qed jigi ndirizzat ‘His Excellency’ ?