Maltese passports don’t have to be bought by the individual. They can also be bought by a state for its own ends.
Joseph Muscat in China in 2010
I’m beginning to wonder about Joseph Muscat’s memorandum of understanding with China when he was still the Opposition leader in 2010 and went there with Alex Sceberras Trigona (now Malta’s permanent rep at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva).
We’re so busy thinking in terms of passports being bought and sold on an individual basis that we haven’t thought laterally: that part of what we’re looking at here might well be a government-to-government transaction.
Muscat might well have entered into an agreement with China to sell it X number of passports for covert use by selected officials who may need the free run of the European Union. It would have to be covert and they would have to be officials because China does not permit dual nationality.
There is nothing to stop the Maltese government entering into this kind of deal with any other undemocratic state. And we will never know – because as it turns out, it is now that we’ve got ourselves what so many twerps thought we had in Lawrence Gonzi, an elected dictator.
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An elected PUPPETdictator. The sort who thinks he’s in charge because his string-pullers told him so.
Exactly. KMB Mark II.
This cannot be because we are going to have the most strict and efficient due diligence in the world.
What a mess. As long as there is secrecy, we have every right to be suspicious of the most transparent government of all times.
How come that the EU not saying anything? This is dangerous.
EU and the USA cannot act, publicly at least, before the IIP is up and running – then the sanctions against Malta will begin. Goodbye Schengen membership and goodbye visa-free travel to the USA for starters.
THAT is when the earthquake will hit and when the bottom will fall out of a fraudulent scheme that is as dishonest as any Ponzi scheme.
Precisely.
It’s one step – not even forwards – and takes us thirty steps/ years back.
What a floundering of the Labour Party, that so many people have so little constructive intelligence and vision between them.
What a massive waste of the Public Purse.
The public wasting away of Malta.
One step further and this government may insanely contemplate selling diplomatic passports.
These would probably fetch an even higher price since the holders would have even more access and less hassles to contend with.
In fact during the Mintoff era some politicians were improperly using diplomatic passports when deserving diplomats were left without – and at least one MLP minister resisted returning his diplomatic passport when the Nationalists came to power.
On a different note Yaser Arafat’s wife Suha today claimed that her husband has been poisoned. She described his death as a political murder. Labour lawyer Joe Mifsud who usually hangs around her and presents himself as Suha’s lawyer was nowhere to be seen. She has probably realised at last what he is worth.
I believe the body has been exhumed and toxicological tests show traces of Polonium(?), so she’s probably right.
Does it really matter? We’re all better off without him. He was a Palestinian Mintoff – a self-aggrandising, posturing, lying, egotistical megalomaniac tinpot despot who was more concerned about writing his name in the history books than the wellbeing of his people.
Which explains why he was adored and courted by Maltese politicians.
And on a totally unrelated matter, I wonder how true is one’s declaration of having a large amount of cash at home.
Let’s say I am a new minister and that I expect to make a lot of money within the next five years without having to explain how or pay tax on these new funds. How handy to have declared to already having that money in the first place.
Which is why the Minister who declared that he held a lot of cash on 31 December 2012, which was a date before he became a Minister, should have been asked by journalists to state if he has since deposited that cash with a financial or investment institution, and if not, why not.
Also he should be asked which financial or investment institution was involved.
Then, questions should be made with the MFSA to check whether it has investigated that proper money laundering procedures were applied by the financial or investment institution in question.
Now let me give you a hypothetical scenario.
I become a candidate for the elections, which are held on 9 March 2013. I am elected and become a Minister.
After 9 March 2013, I earn a sum of money of euro 500,000 in cash, for some reason. I go to the bank and deposit the money.
Later I realise (or I am told, or I realise when I read the “Briksa”) that now as a Minister, come next year, I will have to declare that money in my Ministerial declaration. But I realise also that I have to make a declaration as of 31 December 2012 as well. I know that come next year, I will be asked where I got the large sum of money declared as of 31 December 2013 if it was not declared as at 31 December 2012.
Now I have deposited the money in the bank, so I cannot take it back without suspicion. And if I do not declare it at 31 December 2013 someone may reveal it to the media.
So what do I do?
I declare that cash as cash at home as at 31 December 2012. Then I will say it was my lifetime earnings. Nobody can challenge me. The journalists in Malta have no capability to understand what I have just done.
And the true origin of the euro 500,000 remains unclear.
I think this is it really. Refusing to identify who the applicants will be simply doesn’t correspond to sanity.
Labour must be mad to let them carry on with this. It has basically damaged Muscat’s credibility beyond repair extending the gap between him and the party.
I doubt how many were aware of this before the election and which members of cabinet have all the details.
And that’s not even mentioning the rest of us.
The fact they’re trying to push this through as quickly as possible, quite a shouting match this morning in parliament, indicates possible doubts whether everyone’s on board.
Labour have degenerated fast, incredibly so. I just can’t believe we’re here talking about a government which won’t trust us with our own affairs.
Honestly, it’s shameful.
“Mhux fl-interess tal-poplu.”
I have pertinent question to ask. Can the Labour Government issue complementary passports and citizenship for free to individuals it chooses? For example, would Shiv Nair get his for free? Are there others wealthy Labour Party Sponsors who they would give free citizenship to?
We spoke about abuse from a monetary point of view, but there can be abuse from a simply rubber stamp and issuance point of view also.
Weeks have now passed and Shiv Nair is suddenly forgotten with all the other new scandals that have cropped up.
You can be sure that Joseph Muscat knows that we know that he knows. He will just go to greater lengths to hide Shiv Nair’s presence and involvement, considering that he went to extraordinary and illegal lengths already in the years preceding the election.
Pradeep Prenyan Shivshankar Nair’s involvement, and the involvement of ALL of the partners and informal intelligence collecting agents that are connected with him, have not gone unnoticed. Not in the least.
The higher echelons of the mob.
The minister for secret services is now also the minister of secret passports.
What’s going to keep individual investors from buying multiple passports, and multiple identities?
Interesting to see that since this photo was taken, he’s managed to inflate his body to be in proportion with his head.
Martin Scicluna is having another moment of disillusionment:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.timesofmalta.com%2Farticles%2Fview%2F20131106%2Fopinion%2FMoney-for-citizenship.493502%23.Uns_2PnbPMF&btnG=#.Uns_5vnbPME
Rather long-winded, this Scicluna. His orders group would have died of old age.
Oh, for heaven’s sake, an apologist is one who thinks this country can afford the luxury of choosing between Labour and the PN.
It’s tough Mr.Scicluna, but we have no choice.
Welcome to Labour’s plan for the economy. Nothing.
Martin Scicluna may be having another ‘moment’ of disillusionment – but Malta seems to be heading towards a DECADE of despondency, disaster and despair, thanks to Martin Scicluna himself and others as ruddy-minded as he is.
We need a copy of that memorandum.
That memorandum must be made public. After all, it is signed by the Chinese government (the communist party) and relates to matters of cooperation with the Chinese government.
The opposition should question the prime minister to publish that document in parliament.
Alex Sceberras Trigona had been quoted saying that foreign policy must feed into the budget. The issue of those passports for cash is a perfect example of AST’s doctrine.
http://maltarightnow.com/?module=news&at=Skont+ta%27+70%25+fi%26%23267%3B-%26%23266%3Bittadinanza+Maltija+g%26%23295%3Bal+familja+ta%27+%26%23295%3Bamsa+min-nies%2C+ji%26%23380%3Bvela+maga%26%23380%3Bin+Russu&t=a&aid=99851987&cid=19
Our citizenship is to become just like a “Call Girl” for the rich who cannot get laid. Used and abused.