A government which hears (gvern li jisma) but which refuses to listen
Published:
January 23, 2014 at 12:10am
I see now that it is Philip Manduca who has carried back from Australia a 1000-signature petition by Maltese-Australians, calling on the government not to sell Maltese citizenship.
Well done.
I imagine the prime minister’s response will now be, “Noted, but no thanks.”
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It warms my tired old heart to see that at least some Maltese-Australians are intelligent, civilised beings.
However, one thousand out of tens of thousands is still a tiny minority. The rest of them, Mintoffians to the core, will be supporting Joseph Muscat.
So let’s deploy our irregulars.
The Maltese Russian community is mightily pissed off. They’ve been very quiet about this, as they’ve always been, they being of the sort that knows the difference between the right to live in a foreign country, and the privilege of doing so. I’m not calling on them to go out in the streets and protest. But they have Maltese friends, family, husbands and wives, some of whom may be reading this. How does it feel when you’ve been married to a Russian citizen for five years, during which he or she has lived in Malta, worked in Malta, contributed to the economy and perhaps raised your children here, but are still waiting for that Maltese passport?
There are something like four thousand Russian citizens in Malta, and five thousand Serbians, and many more from countries outside the EU, who have made Malta their home, who live and work here and have a stake in the country. Why shouldn’t they get a Maltese passport? What has a rich Chinese billionaire who stays here as long as it takes to drive from Luqa to Valletta ever done for Malta? Why should he get a passport?
That’ll do it for me, Baxx. Your recognition means a lot.
Many people left Malta precisely because of Mintoff, who had a similar mentality to the Miami Cubans.
The waves of emigration in the 70s were small compared to the post-war waves. The emigrants in the first waves were for the most part illiterate so one can understand them being enamoured by a dictator.
Also, remember that a disproportionate number of Maltese in Australia are actually Gozitan, who are not exactly traditionally Red.
I agree. No one community deserves citizenship more than the Serbian community. Outstanding people.
A passport? Not even. Many are clamouring for what is rightfully theirs in terms of EU Law – permanent residence.
Directive 2004/38/EC makes it clear “That Union citizens who have resided legally for a continuous period of five years in the host Member State shall have the right of permanent residence there.” (Article 16 paragraph 1 of the Directive).
It has been transposed into Maltese legislation by means of Subsidiary Legislation SL 217.05 (LN 278/2006). And guess what. They spend hours in a long queue, being subjected to (in some cases) moral abuse.
I’ve witnessed it with my own eyes and had it not been in one or two cases the the persons in question were accompanied by me (their lawyer) they would have gone through some very, very nasty times.
Believe me, trying to get some sort of residence permit in Malta is hell. The non-EU thousands who are lawfully staying here and paying taxes, those who are raising a family here, those who have ended here through love, family ties or luck (or ill-luck) have to go through hell and back. Not to speak of the migrants who end up washed up on our shores by sheer misfortune.
I am not talking even about passports here. This is another (though certainly not the only one) reason why this passport-for-cash scheme is so downright immoral and wrong. It gives out the message: “I want you to be called Maltese only if you have got the cash”. Incredible.
What’s next? Declaring low-income Maltese individuals personae non gratae? That would be the next logical step.
Lomax, don’t get me started.
The injustice faced by non-EU residents in Malta is a story yet to be told.
And I don’t care if anyone thinks I’m being harsh on the Nationalist Party, but successive PN governments handled the issue disastrously. The permanent residency scheme is the least of it. The high net-worth individual scheme is another.
Contrary to popular opinion, the Russians in Malta are not billionaire crooks, who can but a 350,000 Euro property with their small change. Very few of them can afford that sort of money.
Many of them have been living in Malta for a decade or more, working and contributing to the economy with real talent (are you ‘listening’, Joseph Muscat?). And yet they live with the constant uncertainty of possibly being denied their annual visa application. Because the administrative hoops they have to go through are horrendous, and unlike Chinese billionaires, they cannot take a day off just to wait line (only to be told their appointment has been cancelled). Then there’s the indignity of having their flat examined for conformity with some unspecified conditions of salubrious living. And let us not forget utility bills.
Not to mention health and social services. In effect, those without permanent residency are paying their national insurance to fund Maltese and EU citizens, when they themselves are not entitled to the full range of free services.
For those with children, it gets worse: school registration is the least of it.
Many of the Serbians in Malta came here during the 1990s. By way of a true parable, I know a Ritiana Spudkodic. Her parents brought the whole family to Malta in the 90s, when she was eight years old. So she’s been living here practically all her life. Yet she has not been granted Maltese citizenship.
Now comes the shocking bit. When she turned eighteen, she was no longer considered to be a legal dependent, and therefore had to start applying for a residency visa. Without a job contract, the visa may be refused at will. Even worse, she was accepted at the University of Malta, so she can stay in Malta on a student visa, but because she is not an EU citizen, she gets no stipend and has to pay tuition fees.
But hey, these people don’t vote in Maltese elections, so who gives a shit, right?
The country, the ‘national interest’, the ‘state’, which Joseph Muscat professes to love, is more than the sum of the people holding its passport. It includes anyone living on the national territory and adding to the richness and the riches of the country. For too long, and for all their talk of “il-bniedem fic-centru tal-politika”, Nationalist governments have seen non-EU simply as walking bags of cash, to be milked for all they’re worth.
Foreigners aren’t all millionaires. This isn’t Monaco. If the Nationalists – who are vastly more intelligent than all of Labour combined, with a moral compass in good working order – couldn’t see this, I really have no hope for Labour.
I just wish the expats would unite to make their voice heard. They did, briefly, for one day, some years ago. The EU Commission occasionally organises discussion meetings in EU member states for non-EU nationals. The one held in Malta was well-attended. And when the floor was opened for discussion, the stories of frustration and injustice came pouring out. But there is nothing the EU Commission can do, beyond conveying their grievances to the national government.
Joseph Muscat is lucky indeed that the non-EU nationals who live in Malta are the quiet sort, or he’d have a revolution on his hands. And then Manuel Mallia would have to put it down, wouldn’t he, with firmness. All in the national interest.
Baxx, do you still think the Maltese Australians are a bunch of uncouth Mintuffjani?
Not all of them.
Muscat said he would listen. Never said he would act on what the people are telling him. Which of course is what the people who voted for him thought he meant. All he wanted was their vote. And he got that. Now we all pay the flippin price.
Why ask questions when the answer is already known from past experience?
Joseph Muscat had all the opportunity he needed to hear and listen to the advice of the Opposition in parliament. He rejected the advice. He is now taking a defiant stand against what the European Parliament has to say.
He also rejected the advice of Labour-leaning newspaper columnists on this subject. He only listened to those who gave him moral support in exchange for a few crumbs that he threw their way.
Incidentally, the words of Manwel Mallia, and quite a few fellow travellers, are very disparaging towards Maltese living abroad who obtained Maltese nationality, once this became possible, on the grounds of descent, the commonest criterion accepted internationally next to birth in the country.