The prime minister is lying about not meeting Nair. And he lies, too, about Nair being given a residence permit. Nair is British, an EU citizen. He has full freedom of movement in Malta.
Tu quoque: the logical fallacy which the prime minister uses to fend off criticism. But it remains flawed logic all the same.
Times of Malta reports:
Wednesday, October 9, 2013, 00:01
PM denies meeting ‘blacklisted’ adviser
Muscat says business consultant has no contract with OPM
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday denied he had ever met business consultant Shiv Nair or that Mr Nair had any contract with the OPM, pointing out that he had been given a residence permit by the previous administration.
The prime minister is lying, REALLY lying. I had never heard the name Shiv Nair before last January, when in the thick of that electoral campaign chaos, with all the speculation about the power station, two or three people contacted me separately to say that I should be looking at the Labour Party’s China connection for clues.
This China connection, each of them said, came through one Shiv Nair. What made them think so, I asked. I’d never heard of him.
He’s big on contacts with China, they said. He’s an agent for the Chinese. And he’s been seen regularly, he and his wife, with Joseph and Michelle Muscat.
Two of these people had actually seen Muscat themselves, dining with Nair. They were able to identify him precisely because he was with the Opposition leader, and they asked for information about him.
———
As for Muscat’s accusation that it was the previous government that had given Nair a residence permit, this is the sort of media reporting that drives me nuts.
It’s bad enough that he got away with that rubbish in parliament. Are the newspapers going to let him get away with it too?
Shiv Nair didn’t and still doesn’t need ‘a residence permit’. The man is a British subject. He has a British passport. He is an EU citizen. He is free to live here, to work here, to do pretty much what he likes here. He needs no permits. Residence permits are for non-EU citizens only.
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They both look so smug. Tad-daqqiet ta’ ħarta.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is caught lying again. Now Minister Konrad Mizzi will be the next one to deny meeting Shiv Nair.
I feel confident that many times Shiv Nair denies ever having met himself.
Look at his forehead and the tell-tale liar’s line.
HE IS LYING.
I can’t believe this. A Prime Minister lying?
Peter, why are you surprised?
Fact: He did not tell the truth so many times during the election campaign. He changed answers from yes to no and vice versa in any particular press conference, and yet journalists did not challenge him and told him so there and then. And he got away with it. Only this website had the balls to say so then.
Somebody has to ask Joseph Muscat under which name did he meet this person if it was not Shiv Nair.
The one he met was called Nair Shiv that night.
“Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday denied he had ever met business consultant Shiv Nair or that Mr Nair had any contract with the OPM…”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131009/local/PM-denies-meeting-blacklisted-adviser.489569
And if Joseph Muscat says that Shiv Nair does not have a contract with the OPM, the PM should be asked if there is any contract between any office, agency, department, person in the government of Malta and Gozo and Comino with any of the companies in which Shiv Nair or any one of his aliases has any ownership, directorship, or any other relationship, control, or interest, whatsoever, wherever, whenever.
Joseph Muscat and his cabinet are trained to word their reply in a way that is, at times, legally factually correct, but which would be very different if probed further.
I had taken this into account when I suggested the original PQ, but our opposition MPs can’t even copy and paste…
Baxxter, ghidilhom. Ghax issa se nbigh il-passaport u mmur lejn l-Azerbaijan.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/09/a-few-more-details-on-the-man-describing-himself-in-business-deals-as-consultant-to-the-prime-minister-of-malta/
Go to Kazakhstan instead. Ever been there? It’s beautiful and vast, the vodka tastes like petrol and the womenfolk are crazy.
And life is blissfully short, intense, and cheap. That’s where a man can live like a man, to fight and die on the vast steppe, leading his Golden Horde, or just as freelance warlord, a lone rider astride his steed, a bullet in his chest and blood in his mouth, and eagles soaring above.
But you’d rather keep your cushy post in Malta so I understand.
Basically, Joseph Muscat has revealed as much as had been revealed on the internet by Qatar Petroleum – actually less, because he denied that Nair is his consultant but said only that Nair “had been instrumental in opening channels of communication with Qatar.”
Had Qatar Petroleum not mentioned Shiv Nair on its public website, the Prime Minister would not have admitted anything, no Parliamentary Question would have been asked on this matter, and we would never know anything.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131009/local/PM-denies-meeting-blacklisted-adviser.489569
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
What makes you so sure of that?
I wonder how Muscat plans to get away with calling Qatar’s government a liar.
When a politician worth his salt is cornered he is generally expected to fight himself out.
When, instead of fighting, he resorts to blatant lying, then he is doomed.
Anthony, de Bono is 80 years old. He has a long line of “unsatisfactory (business) relationships” behind him where he wasn’t the party doomed, quite the opposite. Everyone is either too embarrassed to report or thinks it quite futile to go against “the name.”
Once the position you are lying from is a forceful one, then others – we’ve already for gotten locals here – will be pressured and cajoled into believing that lying politician.
Joseph Muscat has learnt from a professional.
People find it far easier to deal with a liar and get ahead than to notice the spokes in the wheels and not get ahead as fast or at all. The keeping up with the Joneses mentality has a price.
Lies are like cheap hamburgers these days, you know that they’re bad for you, but masses are sold. If you, like me, don’t include them in your diet, then you must be one of the rare ones.
U dak il-hin is-serduq idden tliet darbiet.
Why does he have to lie about this? People are not stupid
Beg to disagree. We wouldn’t be in the situation we are if there weren’t quite a few people who are stupid.
The answer to rpacebonello is that an inveterate liar like Joseph Muscat has to lie. He can’t not. It is a compulsion.
The comment that people are not stupid is, unfortunately, wrong. Too many are.
One has only to read the comments on timesofmalta.com, from people who don’t understand basic issues even when they are clearly spelled out, and who then go on to defend the indefensible.
Gvern brigant mal-briganti jaghmila.
Take a look at this link:
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=145562659&privcapId=145526058&previousCapId=145526058&previousTitle=British%20Borneo%20Holdings%20Ltd
What is of particular interest to me is “Mr. Nair specializes in developing major infrastructure projects utilizing Chinese EXIM credit”
Exim Bank of China is:
1. Distinguished by its role as the solve provider of Chinese government concessional loans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concessional_funding#Concessional)
2. Commercial activity includes export credits mainly in the infrastructure fields (roads, power plants, oil and gas pipelines, telecom, and water projects) and investment loans for Chinese businesses to establish overseas in the energy, mining and industrial sectors.
3. Exim does not publish figures for overseas loans.
All the roads lead to China.
A lying Prime Minister? Things haven’t changed I seel.
In my time I was summoned peremptorily to report to Mintoff escorted by the then Commissioner of Police within the hour – no reason given and of course no question asked. I just had time to speak to a very senior police officer who happened to come into my office at Police GHQ. He had time to give me some very useful advice before before the Police Commissioner escorted me to Castille.
Firstly he advised me to allow Mintoff to run out of steam before daring to open my mouth. Secondly, keep repeating to yourself all the time, silently of course, “This man is lying to me. This man is lying to me”.
That advice saved the day for me but it landed the Police Commissioner, a Mintoff devotee up to then, in trouble.
…. u s’issa is-serduq inhanaq jidden.
If you accuse Muscat of denying knowledge of Nair, he’ll just say ‘Pietru mhux hekk ghamel lil Gesu?’. He’s the king of logical fallacy.