There’s nothing, except ethical standards and respect for democracy, to stop the government issuing diplomatic passports to whomsoever it pleases
Published:
November 8, 2013 at 9:39pm
A government that has no qualms about selling Maltese passports to those who helped finance its electoral campaign will have fewer qualms about issuing Maltese diplomatic passports to those who demand one-and-a-half pounds of flesh.
We should be deeply concerned about this.
Meanwhile, here is a comment posted by former ambassador Noel Buttigieg Scicluna on this website some hours ago:
I recall that during the time of the Labour government of the 80s, when Alex Sceberras Trigona was Foreign Minister, a Maltese diplomatic passport was given to an honorary consul for Malta in Lebanon. This was never made public and it was withdrawn by Censu Tabone when he became Foreign Minister.
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Joseph Muscat will be remembered for going from stamping his feet while attempting to push back poor African immigrants seeking help from Malta to access the EU as their only hope for survival to stamping Maltese passports for Chinese billionaires to give them access to the EU via Malta.
One can also imagine that if hundreds of passports will be sold then one can also conclude that the Labour Party may be securing hundreds of votes. Hundreds of passports every year can easily lead to a new deciding factor in Malta’s general elections. Malta’s real citizens and those who fought hard for Malta’s independence and helsien cannot be insulted more.
The PL will not be securing hundreds of votes but millions of euros.
Hundreds of votes would not be enough to maintain it in power.
Millions of euros translate into thousands of votes.
That would ensure the PL stays in power indefinitely.
Within five a good percentage of us who are real citizens of Malta will have joined the majority. I am coming across quite a lot of Maltese citizens who are under forty who are more interested how to get a free lunch.
Somehow, the words “ethical” and “Labour” don’t seem to go together.
Recommended reading: Michael J. Sandel, “What money can’t buy — the moral limits of markets”, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York), 2013.
Do business envoys for Malta hold Maltese diplomatic passports?
What passports and level of passport do Shiv Nair and Sai Laing operate with?
But honestly!
1. Why was this scheme never mentioned in the electoral campaign? Labour afraid of losing votes?
2. Why are the names of people buying passports to be kept secret? Something to hide?
3. If Labour knows the risk of losing votes, why are they doing this at all? For 30 million euros? Something sounds wrong here…30 million euros are not worth losing votes for.
4. Why is Labour always being so ridiculous in saying the Opposition is destructive? Is it destructive to give better ideas on how the Citizenship Scheme could run?
5. Why isn’t this scheme tied to investment? The U.S. has a similar programme in which applicants must first live for 5 years there and they are tied by investing and creating jobs. Wouldn’t have that been MUCH better? Yes…but Labour is making this up simply to deliver an electoral promise to mysterious persons, one which was not made to the public but to someone (or some country) eager to be able to obtain as many passports as it likes, quickly, for its representatives and salespersons…..selling God knows what.
6. How can we trust the government’s due diligence skills if they employed Shiv Nair (blacklisted by the World Bank for fraud and corruption)? They weren’t able to Google him – so what due diligence is that?