Owen Bonnici says that Malta “isn’t really SELLING citizenship” because Manuel Mallia can say no
In his brief interview with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio – see previous post – Owen Bonnici says he objects to Malta’s scheme being called ‘sale of citizenship’ because “it’s not really selling as there is a due diligence process and even after that, the minister can still refuse an application because he has discretion”.
This shows that Owen Bonnici and his friends don’t understand even the most basic principles of European democracy. He actually sees it as a plus point that a cabinet minister can over-ride and undermine the due diligence process.
It follows that if Manuel Mallia can refuse a citizenship application even though the due diligence process turns up nothing wrong, then he can also accept an application even though the due diligence process turns up something shady.
Giving a minister discretionary powers is bad enough, but giving discretionary powers to Manuel Mallia is insane.
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Mallia is a relatively newcomer to the Labour fold. And yet he is the most powerful cabinet minister.
Does he hold the keys to the kingdom?
A die-hard Labour friend of mine considers Mallia to be a Nationalist and is so fed up with him that he’s contemplating not voting at the next election. Serious stuff.
And you call that a solution? Not voting is basically saying that you do not care who governs.
Yes. And also a still unexplained Euro 800,000.- stash in cash at his home.
Since our justice minister is so incredibly thick, here’s a parable he can understand.
I walk into a pub. I order a pint of lager. The barman refuses to serve me because I’m drunk.
So is the pub selling beer or not?
Thank God you didn’t use a strip club as an example. Chris Cardona might have been tempted to enter the fray.
Hmm. How would the story go?
So I walk into a strip club and ask for a private show. The Roma dancer refuses to serve me because she says that’s not a wad of cash in my pocket.
Owen Bonnici is like a cub in a den of lions.
Just because he has the face of a moron doesn’t mean he is one. He is sublimely clever, and manipulative too. He pulled off one of the greatest con jobs in Maltese history when he masqueraded as a liberal patron of the arts and turned the artists into the vanguard of the switchers.
Bonnici is a conniving Brutus like his mentor KMB.
I subscribe to this analysis 100%. Owen Bonnici is highly manipulative and a double-dealer.
He is Joseph Muscat’s close friend but is six years younger and much sharper.
He realises that Muscat intends to turn republican Malta into a monarchy under his own rule.
Like Marcus Brutus he will use this as an excuse to dethrone his leader for the good of the nation.
I said he’s clever and manipulative, not upright and noble-minded.
Jeez, do I have to explain everything again?
Owen Bonnici is a fish out of water in the Labour fold. He is, I think the only member of the Cabinet crew that makes sense.I hope that Joe will think fast and place Bonnici in a Ministerial niche – he deserves it.
Not if he sees him as a threat.
This is like asking John Dalli to monitor anti-money laundering banking transactions.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131226/local/l-istrina-charity-extravaganza-kicks-off.500357#.Urx5y9JDvQA
Note the difference in the comments by the two party leaders. Joe Muscat thinks charity is a good idea because you might need it yourself. It just shows his mentality. If there’s nothing in it for me, why bother?
” The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.” Confucius
This is how he is selling/sold the divorce and gay agenda to his diehard conservative flock.
The government has been repeating the fallacy that because the Citizenship for Sale is subject to a “due diligence,” then it is not a sale.
Enough of this rubbish.
Every sale/purchase transaction in an economy is subject to a due diligence, from the most basic to the most formal and complex.
A simple due diligence may consist of an assessment by the seller of the buyer: assessing his ability to pay. And an assessment by the buyer of the seller: judging his ability to deliver the goods which are fit for purpose, and to provide after sales assistance, and so forth.
And in business, all major transactions are subject to very formal due diligence exercises. The Chinese government is acquiring a significant stake in Enemalta from the Maltese government, and currently the Chinese are carrying out a due diligence on Enemalta. Does this mean that the government is not selling, and China buying, a stake in Enemalta?
It must be that the government does not understand the exact meaning of due diligence. Shiv Nair, the prime minister’s energy consultant, comes to mind.
“Giving a minister discretionary powers is bad enough, but giving discretionary powers to Manuel Mallia is insane.”
Why shouldn’t a Minister who has Eur 500,000 stashed under the mattress at home be given discretionary powers to decide who can become an EU citizen?
If he has Eur 500,000 at home, he surely is a brilliant Minister.
He never was the sharpest tool in the shed was he?
It doesn’t really matter what Owen Bonnici thinks. In marketing, perception is what matters. There hasn’t been a single screaming headline about investment. They all mention the sale of citizenship.
Owen Bonnici can call it what he likes. Everyone else calls it what it is.
The MHRA has just issued a statement under the signature of the President.
So will Tony ‘Lickspittle’ Zahra please let us know what he was doing seated next to Manuel Mallia and the prime minister during the press conference?
Jilghaq
Easy. Licking spittle.
I voted for Dr. Gonzi in this survey.
http://andrewazzopardi.org/2013/12/25/ivvota-liema-kien-jew-kienet-il-personalita-tas-sena-maltija-skond-int/
Over 70% voted Joseph Muscat. What a joke!
Just by saying that Bonnici has shown that he too disagrees citizenship shouldn’t be for sale and is just trying to justify this scheme as one which is not a sale progamme. Clutching at straws of course.
Manuel can say “no”, but will he? That would be a great temptation for someone who ends with thousands and thousands of euros of doubtful provenance kept “under the mattress”.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-12-27/news/citizenship-scheme-will-not-affect-first-time-buyers-mda-insists-3547136000/
The banks have refused credit for any luxurious real estate project for over five years now. The fact he doesn’t sound at all enthused with the rent option says it all.
This is what happens when lobbies insist on getting their way: adapting to their own comfort zone actually becomes a liability. Has anyone seen any innovative breakthrough in the construction industry lately?
What exactly is a developer, according to Falzon? What does he think of all the secrecy surrounding the intention to privatise a stretch of coastline?
Even the other rallying cry, Mepa and bureacracy, has been turned into a whisper. It’s as if these people just can’t face the realities and demands of 2014 Malta, so they’ll do their business out of sight.
That’s a sign of failure, creating taboo and enforcing the misplaced idea that development is somehow theirs to define, miserably at that.
These, I’m afraid, are our ‘leading’ entrepreneurs, my dears, the ones who have become the quintessential symptom of Malta’s saturation point, one where ideas need to be crystallised fast. They are plainly not capable of conceiving, let alone stimulating, any ideas.
Watching them try, confused and wary of self-imposed limits leading to the predictably resulting bi-polar bickering, is so depressing.
Muscat’s indecision, spurred on by wishful thinking which promptly falls far short of courage, is their creation.
People who lack good wits utter sheer nonsense. Their greatest difficulty is that they still fail to acknowledge truth and while they are in its (truth’s) presence they consider their folly to be its (truth’s) equivalent.
We need market economy, not a market society … some things in life should not be put up for sale.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-12-26/news/mhra-calls-for-political-consensus-on-citizenship-scheme-3544743936/
Some useful comments from MHRA on the change of the public transport operator.
It seems that MHRA is worried that the service will get worse, and not better, and that this will negatively impact tourism.
MHRA should go one step further and make public the feedback that they were receiving from tourists on Arriva’s service. Was it the disaster which this PL government has claimed it to be? From a tourism point of view, was the change of operator needed?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-12-28/news/2014-public-transport-subsidy-most-likely-to-double-3554476032/
“However, experts in the field have defined the cost to subsidize the new routes Minister Mizzi has been talking of as the main contributor to the surge in public transport costs in 2014.”
Issa qed nifhem. Ministru Mizzi irid juza it-taxxi taghna ghal rotot godda biex jaqdi erba’ bazuzli Laburisti.
Some of the tactics that the PM seems to be using more frequently are the fielding of a table of people outside politics at his press conferences to convince us that he has achieved a wide consensus on decisions he makes, suggesting that the Leader of the Opposition is scared of the government’s potential successes, or that the Leader of the Opposition is living in the past.
The tactics may have had some effect in the immediate aftermath of the elections but now, after 9 months in government, it is becoming increasingly clear that they are his only means of defence, a smoke screen to try and cover up the disastrous turn of events unfolding before our eyes.
The Leader of the Opposition has explained in very simple language that his positions are ones of principle and not based on transitory expediencies or to fulfil promises made prior to the elections.
Funny, one would have thought 9 months are enough to learn from one’s mistakes.