Top comment of the day so far: Malta’s reputation torpedoed overnight for cheaper water and electricity bills
Posted by ciccio:
We must not miss a vital point here.
All those reports in the international media refer to the figure of Eur30 million which prime minister Joseph Muscat told them he expects to get from selling Maltese citizenship.
The international media then logically concluded that Malta is bankrupt if it has resorted to this to bring in Eur30 million.
We have to bear in mind that Eur30 million is roughly what this government needs to keep its promise of cutting water and electricity bills.
It has wreaked havoc on Malta’s hard-won international reputation and created the false impression that we are bankrupt and selling passports to keep our heads above water, just to keep a wild and untenable electoral promise he made to get into power.
This is a disaster. We knew that our cheaper utilities bills would have to come at a very high price, but nobody imagined how high it would be.
These people are utterly irresponsible.
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Reply to Johannes Click here to cancel reply
It took Malta 26 years of solid hard work to shed the disastrous reputation of 16 years of Labour government in the 1970s and 1980s. Now they’ve blasted that overnight.
Muscat’s decision can be compared to Morgan, purveyor of British motoring, deciding to relocate to China.
This is the message this crazy scheme has sent out: everybody get your money out of Malta quick, before the banks collapse and everything else crumbles.
Other countries, especially in the current climate of suspicion with regards to citizenship and immigration, will be under pressure to get Malta to change this.
Previously, economically speaking at least, it was plain sailing for Malta.
Where there was no lack of confidence before March 2013, now — further exacerbated by this scheme — there is going to be a storm that I am afraid the government will not be able to handle.
Muscat, if you play with fire you will get burnt. Now ready yourselves.
The way he just played into it is something worth looking into.
This man is plain dangerous. He just can’t manage a thought process including any potential consequence.
That would be what, negative? His is some personal fetish to exercise power over markets, forces beyond governments and the real press. Delusional due inexperience and a curriculum two sentences long.
I bet he wasn’t expecting this ridicule, no moles planted, no Normans to remove. We’ll have him crying international plot next.
Fits him to a tee.
And through some kind of warped “reasoning”, it will be the PN’s fault again.
Mhux ovvja. Issa tigi Maltatoday tizvela ‘dokumenti sigrieti’ kemm Richard Cachia Caruana kien se jaghmel l-istess haga.
Zgur.
Xarabank se jgib lil Mary Swan tkanta l-Ninni, la tibkix izjed u tahmi l-qaghaq tal-ghasel fil-programm specjali tal-Milied.
25 years to rebuild Malta’s reputation, and along come the Labour Party once again, and in record time they’ve managed to take us into the abyss once more.
You have to hand it to them – they’re consistent.
Times of Malta is silent on this grave issue. It has become part of the Muscatian Conspiracy. It only presented to its readers an on-line survey of whether they agree or not with the Shame-Scheme. How puerile.
One thing is for sure – they won’t be getting burned down this time round; more likely a government-funded refurbishment. Whoever still buys that newspaper should really take a long hard look in the mirror.
[Daphne – Surprising you should say that, because it was actually Keith Kasco Schembri’s wife, an interior designer, who worked on the refurbishment of their shop on Castile Place a few years ago.]
In humility I have to admit that my apparent wittiness was unintentional. Darn.
Malta’s reputation down the drain with financial problems to follow, all so that people can get a discount on their water and electricity bills. But when they have no job, how are they going to pay that bill at all?
Yes, those people are utterly irresponsible but they are far worse than that. They have rewritten the book on cynicism.
They know full well that, as long as Muscat keeps his promise to put a few pence back into the pockets of those who voted him in, they couldn’t care less about anything else and will let him do as he damn well pleases.
This is the realpolitik of Malta – the case was proved under Mintoff and Muscat has simply pushed the boundaries of political cynicism several stages further, knowing that the principle remains as true as it ever was.
And this is the grotesque reality of our political life – we can write, scream and protest all we like. We can produce all the evidence in the world of their nefarious deeds.
We can return to being the pariahs of Europe. We can deprive ourselves of everything associated with modern, civilised existence. But, as long as Muscat scatters the odd copper (cupro-nickel?) occasionally, the voting majority don’t, never have and never will give a damn.
There is something funny about that poll. It shows 71% favour. Have PL employed full-timers to control Times of Malta message boards?
That’s so Chinese.
You mean so Joseph admiring China’s policy to counteract reactionaries on the internet.
Or maybe many people just gave up on Times of Malta. I’m sure the profile of its readership has changed significantly over the past months.
Shame on all those who voted for this scum.
Yes, shame on those who should have known better – and keep in mind that the ‘benefits’ given out in the budget is a smokescreen to lure away attention from the the more pressing issues – such as sale of citizenship. An example of panis et circenses?