The damage has been done, and it’s too late to rectify it
Former Central Bank governor Francis Vassallo has told Times of Malta (published this morning) that despite the cosmetic changes the government has made to the sale-of-passports scheme, “the original perception that Malta is selling passports to fend off an economic crisis will not be corrected”.
When news of the scheme first broke in late summer, Vassallo had described it as “the opening of Pandora’s box”. He says that his view has not changed since.
He is right, of course. That is one of the main problems with the scheme: it has sent out the message that Malta is so desperate for cash that it has resorted to selling citizenship. The low price for a ‘commodity’ of such high value only served to contribute to the impression that this is some kind of crisis-related fire sale.
The stories in the international press, when the news hit globally, took two main lines: 1. that Malta is selling something which it does not technically own – full access to the European Union and the other 27 member states, and 2. that Malta is selling citizenship for Eur650,000 (and let us remember that this is less than the price of one or two rooms in Europe’s major cities, so talk of ‘super rich’ is rubbish) because its economy has been crippled by the financial crisis.
In the fresh tranche of international reporting over the last few days, spurred by the minor changes the government has made and by the failure of talks with the Opposition, these lines have not changed. The reports are still about how Malta is selling passports to pay off its debts.
This is the reason why I was taken aback by the sheer lack of responsibility of the chiefs at the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Finance Malta and the Malta Financial Services Authority who sat alongside the prime minister at his press conference and gave their backing to his ‘revised’ scheme which solves none of these problems but only creates others.
It is their business not to back the prime minister and suck up to him, but to protect and safeguard Malta’s reputation as a sound economy and a reliable and safe place to invest, and that reputation has had a lot of damage done to it, right across the globe, by the very same proposal and the man they are backing.
I remind them that they are not there to look after No. 1 and their own personal interests.
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Finance Malta and the Malta Financial Services Authority are not autonomous so they cannot act independently.
It is the government that appoints the chairmen and boards for these authorities and therefore they are indirectly bound to support government.
[Daphne – Actually, they are not. They are free to register their objection and their disquiet, and free to resign if attempts are made to prevent them doing so. They are not indentured servants or captives who are forced into acting against their better judgement.]
I’m more disappointed by those lickers of the Malta Chamber of Commerce, who after all, will be the first to start feeling the negative effects of this scheme.
The fact is that the Malta Financial Services Authority chairman (Bannister) is close to John Dalli, while the Finance Malta chairman is staunch Mintoffian, promoted to the highest levels under the PN ghax Malta veru kienet taghna lkoll, u l-meritokrazija veru kienet tezisti.
What’s Bannister doing there anyway?
Whores selling their mothers, as Ivan Fenech put it in Times of Malta.
Perfectly explained.
Francis Vassallo summed up my concerns in the exact order they have been for the last three months.
For everyone round Europe, Malta is another Greece or Cyprus.
But of course, if they voiced their objections to anything they will be seen as being “negative” and thus a threat to the positive thinking that commands the universe to give them what they want.
Taken aback is putting it very mildly I would say.
I simply cannot understand what is happening to some people. They seem to have lost all self-respect, respect for their country and sheer common sense.
Is it possible that persons who were once held in high regard, find it so easy to sell their souls to the devil? For what, a simple promise perhaps?
The people get the government they deserve. Those who were not party to this charade should feel truly proud.
Maltese people should be outraged with this, yet they are quiet. I don’t understand why Labour supporters are not criticising Muscat. This is prostitution of Maltese passports.
Malta is not another Greece or Cyprus – Malta is “Little Malta” soon to be put in the corner. What a Pity!! All that work done by Fenech Adami and Gonzi, down the drain!
Government changes:
– buy a property, then sell it for a profit.
– invest in bonds, make a profit
Net result? The ‘investors’ end up, at the end of the day, better off than they would have been under the scheme in its original, disgraceful draft, with the same end result of having gained an EU/Shengen passport, ON THE CHEAP/CHEAPER/CHEAPEST!
But it’s NOT about the money, as Labour idiots claim to be the crux of the whole rotten issue, is it.
But……I’m being n egative. I must apologise.
Dropping the secrecy clause will have upset some who were relying on it. I look forward to reading the names of our new fellow citizens.
Speaking of central banks, Joseph Muscat has basically converted the Maltese and EU passport into a new currency with which he can finance the budget deficit which he will be creating while attempting to deliver his pre-electoral promises, and at the same time creating the currency with which billionaires can buy their way into the EU.
The advantage of the Maltese passport is that unlike the country’s currency, which is controlled by a central bank independent of government, the passport currency is controlled by the government, and Joseph Muscat can print as much as he likes of it and he can dictate the exchange rate (price) against any other currency. He has already indicated that he has printed 1,800 copies which he is holding in the vaults, ready to release in circulation, for the price of Eur 650,000 a piece.
But like any central bank currency, the more he prints, the more the currency devalues. And the Maltese passport has already been ridiculed and debased even before Muscat releases on the international markets any of the 1,800 copies with which he plans to mop up the equivalent of Eur 1.2 billion from China, Azerbaijan, Russia and the like.
http://www.independent.co.uk/?CMP=ILC-refresh
The headlines on todays online UK Independent newspaper