PL: Partit tal-Liars update
‘PM to avoid passport scheme details at Miami conference’ ran the headline in The Malta Independent today. The story reported what a government spokesman told the newspaper:
As things stand, the prime minister has headed for Miami without a definite programme to sell, although the government spokesman pointed out that the government’s aim was to focus on promoting Malta as an investment destination – and not on the details of the scheme.
But the government spokesman only told half the story, which is typical of liars. While the prime minister will be speaking in general about Malta as a foreign direct investment destination, Henley & Partners will in fact be speaking about the details of Malta’s sale-of-citizenship scheme.
See tomorrow’s conference programme excerpt below, taken from the conference website.
Friday 22.11.13
10:00 – 10:20 A New Era of Foreign Direct Investment and Prosperity for Malta
Keynote address by the Prime Minister
Hon. Dr. Joseph Muscat, Prime Minister of the Republic of Malta
10:20 – 10:45 The Malta Individual Investor Program: A New Citizenship-by-Investment Option in Europe
• Why Malta?
• Requirements and process
• Key benefits
Christian H. Kälin, Head of International Residence and Citizenship Practice Group, Henley & Partners
In any case, what the government spokesman said about the prime minister’s speech is just so much rubbish. Those people think they can control everything in non-Maltese scenarios, and are then surprised when they can’t and it all blows up in their face, as it did with the press coverage internationally about their Eur650,000 special offer.
The prime minister can speak about what he pleases during his set speech at the conference, but he can’t control the questions from his audience and he is going to have to answer them – properly, and not with tu quoque snapping or brush-offs.
His audience is not going to be interested in Malta as an FDI destination. His audience is there to hear about the sale of citizenship, and that is exactly what they are going to ask him about.
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I wish they’d stream it so we can tune in for a laugh.
Whaaaaaat? Promoting investment in Malta, in Miami? You’re joking.
Since when has Miami become the hub of conferences for the promotion of investment? It’s purely and simply an exercise in promoting the sale of Maltese passports, period. Stop screwing, whoever this government spokesman is.
Henley must have an in on where South Americans, especially Columbians, congregate.
The way they’re going about it equates the word investment to money-laundering.
There was a foreign journalist filming in Republic Street holding a Maltese passport at 4pm this afternoon. Free promotion for the scheme I suppose.
Malta Liars Party (MLP) – tinstema isbaħ.
The Prime Minister was evidently caught between a rock and a hard place. He had accepted the invitation to attend and address the Miami conference well before the reaction of shock and awe to the Individual Investor Programme hit the world headlines.
He could hardly be impolite by turning it down at such a late hour could he. I would make every effort to curtail question time though, or better still avoid it completely, if I were him.
Pity the Henley & Partners spokesman trying to convincingly promote what can at best be described as an embryo, hardly viable yet, and subject to crumbling and falling apart at any minute.
Partit tal-Liars. That’s pure gold, Daphne, because it’s exactly what they are. Hope it sticks.