Comments on: The PM announced yesterday that he’s setting up a ‘passport sale’ monitoring board that includes the Opposition – and it turns out he hadn’t even told them yet, let alone got their consent

By: rpacebonello

rpacebonello — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 01:07:11 +0000

In reply to Peppinus. And who their Malta representatives are.

By: Claude Sciberras

Claude Sciberras — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 00:20:36 +0000

If the people who are given a passport have a vote, and if you say that the government can sell a very large number of these, wouldn’t it be possible for these new voters to become quite an important voting section of the population. Effectively the government could be buying itself a large number of votes who would never vote PN which would remove their citizenship.

[Daphne – Citizenship is a prerequisite for the right to vote in general elections, but there are other requirements too. There are thousands of Maltese citizens in North America and Australia who don’t have the right to vote in Malta.]

By: il-Hsieb tar-ronnie

il-Hsieb tar-ronnie — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 22:40:45 +0000

With so many people against the scheme, according to maltatoday’s survey, I think that an abrogative referendum may well be successful. This could take place at the same time as the EP elections and be the main campaign issue for the PN.

By: Natalie

Natalie — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 18:04:10 +0000

Simon Busuttil is steadily growing into the shoes of a great leader. I did not think he had it in him.

By: Peppinus

Peppinus — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 12:57:46 +0000

It would be very interesting to verify when Henley registered their company in Malta.

By: kevin zammit

kevin zammit — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 12:02:48 +0000

Can’t the Opposition make an annual parliamentary question and ask the names of those that have bought citizenship? They have to answer right?

[Daphne – Yes, they will answer: to say that the law precludes publication of the names.]

By: Geoffrey Borg

Geoffrey Borg — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 10:21:18 +0000

This scheme is wrong, period. it creates no jobs (except for Henley). It will destroy the solid reputation built by the PN (nothing new, we are used to becoming a pariah state under Labour, every single time they’re in government) and upon which our financial services and gaming industries depend.

Our IT industry in turn has a very large dependence on these two industries and when they go down, it will go down with them. So while this scheme may bring in cash, that cash will be needed to pay the dole to the people whose jobs it will destroy.

You can whine all you like about how the PN did this or that in government but that’s an argument for children in a schoolyard. Labour is there now, not the PN, and this scheme fails all the benchmarks Joe Muscat et al were harping about six months ago, not least the fact that it was not in their manifesto and hence they have no mandate for it.

To those who thought Labour deserved a chance and can now see what a mistake that was (including some columnists and NGOs who are suddenly shocked about this and other bad Labour actions), you can start fixing your mistake next June.

By: PWG

PWG — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 10:04:56 +0000

Manuel Mallia stated in parliament yesterday that the appointment of the monitoring committee was in addition to some other monitoring board. Amazingly, he repeatedly referred to this extra safeguard as ‘double standards’.

By: George Grech

George Grech — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 09:32:55 +0000

Way to go Simon. And we’re 100% behind you on this one.

By: Lawrence Attard

Lawrence Attard — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 03:23:58 +0000

This is not about the Individual Investment Programme, is it? The nation is being duped by an act of misdirection, conjured by the greatest conman in Maltese politics since Mintoff.

It is really all about the small amendment that will not allow the names of naturalised citizens to be published. It is this that will enable Joseph Muscat and Manuel Mallia to become Purveyors of EU Passports, starting 2013, by Special Appointment to the Peoples’ Republic of China.

It is this amendment, and nothing else, that makes it possible for the minister to dispense passports at will and in secret, using any available scheme or mechanism, IIP or other, or none at all for that matter, be it for free, against payment, or in settlement of dues.

Of course, an excuse was needed to disguise the real intentions behind the amendment, and to make it all as palatable as possible. Hence the “clever” ploy of selling passports on the cheap.

The potential for harm makes this whole machination dirty and sleazy, and conspiring with third parties against EU interests could be construed as treason. In my opinion, all persons involved are treading on dangerous ground, and the matter will one day come back to haunt them.