The government is now booking advertising space to persuade us that selling Maltese passports is fantastic
Published:
January 18, 2014 at 1:37am
This is a scan of the advertisement the government is booking in the print editions of some newspapers. You will notice that the key message is in the bottom right-hand corner.
It seeks to tap in to the Kwiksave Grand Lottery Free Gift Iddubbajt Xi Haga B’Xejn mentality hardwired from several centuries of scrabbling around for survival on a barren, arid rock, keeping body and soul together on snails prised out from beneath rocks and sparrows filched from their nests.
Even those who are now comfortably off beyond their ancestors’ wildest dreams still think and behave like imgewhin.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131215/local/Austria-comparisons-to-citizenship-deal-odious-.498976#.UtlZL3ikrCQ
My belief is that it will backfire. Instead of persuading people to be on-side, it will just frustrate and aggravate an already sensitive issue. They are literally adding kindling to the fire.
I think the Headline should be:
SALE, SALE, SALE
SALE KBIR
IRIKORRU GHAND HENLEY & PARTNERS GHALL-PASSAPORT GDID TIEGHEK
Does anyone remember the posters “CET: Gusta u mehtiega”?
“We have taken note of what has been said. Now let’s move on,” Prime Minister Muscat said.
He means that:
– he is going to do exactly what he wants to do, even though he doesn’t have an electoral mandate to do it and there is widespread antagonism to it;
This is now suddenly a choice between selling passports and raising taxes, and given that Malta’s annual budget is three million euros, what is he going to do for the other 11 million he needs to run the country for the next four years? Sell more passports?
I’ve seen a post on Facebook saying “prosit Joseph waqaftilha l-Ewropa u ergajna hadna rajna f’idejna”. What they don’t realise is that if we weren’t in the EU nobody would want to buy a Maltese passport.
The government will have the final say. We have just created Emperor Mallia. Veru serhan tal-mohh.
Since when has it become a choice between the sale of passports and an increase in taxes if we want a better standard of living? Labour had wanted Dr. Gonzi to work miracles without raising literally a one cent tax but now they just want the easy way out.
All their plans rested on the success of this scheme and now they want us to believe that there was no need to include it in their electoral programme. It should have been printed in bold as the first sentence.
The graphic seems to imply that what we have today (Jobs, Investment, Education etc.) will be dissipating once the Citizenship program kicks in.
Since when is paying rent considered an investment?
Let’s come up with some tag lines to help any counter initiative.
There is no doubt that the Govt is going to go on a massive marketing campaign, and that its whole focus will be on the “elf biljun”.
To people who care only how much disposable income they have, talk of damage to the financial services is not going to mean anything. They will explain damage to reputation as “ghira”.
So how do you get it through to them that this is an extremely bad idea.
So which are the problems this country is facing under Joseph’s premiership?
The answer is staring at you in the advert:
JOB CREATION
EDUCATION
HEALTH SYSTEM
SOCIAL SERVICES
By throwing a billion euros at these problems, Joseph Muscat will not solve anything.
After these problems devour the proverbial goose which lays the golden egg, we will end up with no goose and no eggs, let alone golden ones.
A snakes and ladders board would have been more appropriate.
Does the pencil diagram look like a skull?
That was my first thought… plus a feint try at mind-mapping.
I sincerely doubt anyone will buy real estate. Adding 80k in hassle-free rent is peanuts compared to 650k for a passport.
Many will go for that option as hassle-free is exactly what they want, and the reason why the rent option was added alongside the purchasing option.
I cannot understand why we would stop at one billion. If it’s such a hot shit great idea and we are sticking up a middle finger at the other 27 EU member states and at the USA and Canada, let’s go for 10 billion, or hell, 20 billion even. Then we can all stay home and not go to work.
From nothing in the “manifest,” to €30 million in the budget, to €15 million when Edward Scicluna spluttered what he knew of the “mistake” in Brussels, to the billion mark.
Yes. The trend is, on average, upwards. And backwards.
“Together we can take Malta to new heights”.
So far it seems quite the opposite.
Malta has become a global laughing-stock in these past three months.
Is this scenario at all possible? Muscat hurries the processing of the sale of citizenship (he is doing that already, as evidenced by the speed at which the law was passed in Parliament), and by the time the EU institutions decide (as they will) to legislate to forbid any EU country from selling citizenships for cash, he would have cashed in his 1 billion euros anyway.
Surely it will take the EU quite a while to agree on and pass the necessary legislation. And surely it will be then unable to reverse Malta’s sales of citizenship. What do you think?
They might not be able to reverse the sale of citizenship, but they can kick us out of Schengen, so the passport becomes useless if it is clear that it has been bought.
It also makes life more difficult for the true Maltese, but wat de heck, mhux laqwa he travels through diplomatic channels.
I think I’ll stick an extract of my Birth Certificate to my passport, for avoidance of any doubt whilst we’re still in, and in protest.
It’s one way of saying when abroad in the relevant countries: “I did not vote for this ridiculous Maltese Prime Minister and I abhor what he’s done to your country.”
The government of Joseph Muscat is desperate on this issue. Their IIP has been exposed, worldwide, for what it is – a ticket for easy access to the European Union through Malta. The price is low for those who are eager for such access but cannot obtain it otherwise.
A bargain sale is on, and Malta has been made to look like a greedy street hawker. Having gone thus far, prime minister Muscat is not going to back down, but will persist in the hope that the income the IIP will produce will soften the damage caused.
Talent is not the criterion. Nor is a genuine link or commitment to Malta.
I watched an interview with Alfred Sant yesterday on One TV. Inevitably, the first question was on the sale of passports and (also inevitably) Sant claims that the PN is harming Malta by its stand in the European Parliament.
The interviewer Alfred Zammit said that people are ‘angry’ at the PN for harming Malta.
I advise Zammit to be careful in his choice of words. It is the PL and its media who are inducing their hardline supporters to be unjustifiably angry. This is one step short of justifying violent acts against any person who is considered to be a ‘traitor’ by ‘angry’ hardline PL.
A more careful choice of words is advisable.
In any case, it is Joseph Muscat who has harmed Malta with the IIP scheme which the former Belgian PM described as ‘crazy’.
The “halluna naqilghu lira” mentality is at the root of Malta’s worst problems, including corruption.
Ultimately, it was what was at the root of the Nationalist defeat in the last elections. People don’t care about principle or the common good. The Government is using the Billion Euro message to tap into this mentality.
But this advert also shows how short-sighted this government is. Rather than worrying about votes in Malta, they should be worrying about the harm this hare-brained scheme has done to our reputation and the consequential damage that will surely ensue.
“We can take Malta to new heights” they say. The reality is they have plunged it to new depths with this shameful scheme.
Well, depths will look like heights, if you’re standing on your head.
Oh, and where did they put the “Gvern li jisma” line?
How could they possibly not include that line on this issue, considering the extensive consultations they had with every interested party before they voted for the bill in Parliament?
Fejn hu Mr Bundy ha jkantalna PAJJIZ TAL- MICKEY MOUSE? Jaqaw nesa l-lyrics?
There is no point in persuading us. First and foremost, Joseph Muscat has to persuade the EU Commission.
This advertisement was first published before the European Parliament vote.
It needs to be updated to draw the attention of potential ‘investors’ to the fact that the scheme is now under scrutiny by the European Commission, with a view to opening infringement proceedings against Malta.
Anything less would be misleading to the consumer.
The Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority should launch an immediate investigation.
“Citizenship by Investment” then Labour MPs say it is not a sale. If money is changing hands it is surely a sale.
Will the average Labour supporter be able to understand the illustration? Better ask Eddy.
[Daphne – The average Labour supporter does not buy the print edition of Times of Malta and is not the target audience for that advertisement.]
In the election campaign, Michelle Muscat was reported as saying that she wanted her children to grow up remembering their father as the man who united all Maltese.
In 10 months, he has not only divided the Maltese completely but also divided Malta from Europe.
Two of his decisions have brought about arguably the profoundest division among the people of Malta and between Malta and the European Union: the push-back policy and the citizenship-for-sale scheme.
And the point has not been missed that the second undermines his demands for help with the first. If we don’t have room for non-paying immigrants then we don’t have room for paying ones, either. Both sorts take up the same amount of space.
Both of these decisions have caused serious damage to Malta’s good name. And in Malta itself, they have re-enforced that feeling of “us and them” which seems to be a fundamental element in the PL’s concept of government: divide and rule.
Is that really how Michelle wants her children to remember their father – as the man who sold passports to rich people while allowing poor ones to drown or pushing them back where they came from?
Taking Malta to new heights my a*se. Muscat is taking Malta to new lows with each passing day.
This Citizenship Selling Scheme needs to be explained Mintoffian style.
Tell the people a parable or a fable – call it The Parable of the Failed Developer.
The developer rented out the use of the condominium he bought to persons of dubious character, whose only attribute was they paid cash on contract, so that he could pay back the debts he made to own the condominium.
These subletees had the freedom of the place and could in pay reduced prices for more keys to members of their family.
This agreement went against the condominium contract that prohibited the sale of duplicate keys to friends of the owner for the personal use of the condominium facilities.
What would the you do, if such a case happened to you?
When the other owners of the condominium warned this developer of the breach of contract, his answer was “I own the property and do what I want to do and not what you tell me to do.”
The condominium was managed by owners’ representatives, and they decided to change the key of the front door to the whole condominium. Not even the developer or his immediate family were allowed in.
It was the only way to stop the use of the condominium by outsiders who were given duplicate keys.
Can this fall more to the ridiculous than this? This is citizenship we are referening to, not a coffee morning activity.
There are a few interesting things in that advertisement.
1. They are emphasizing a cap of 1800 citizenships, as selling only 1800 bad things is better than selling 1900 or 2000 or whatever.
2. 70% of the money will go (after Henley takes its piece and has the money for a minimum of six months to two years) to this fund. Who runs the fund? Where is the fund registered? Where are the bylaws of the fund? Well really what happens with the other 30%. Who gets that money?
[Daphne – We were told that the remaining 30% would be incorporated with government revenue and used on normal government outgoings.]
3. I have never heard of shares being issued by a government. Shares in what? Debt in the form of bonds issued by a government as a loan to the government, yes. But shares cannot be issued by a government because the government cannot sell ownership in itself. So what shares are they talking about?
Some questions:
If passport holders have children after being given citizenship, wouldn’t the children have a birth-right for that citizenship?
[Daphne – Yes, because the law as approved does not make provision for that. Britain some years ago changed its citizenship law to make adjustments to the birthright provisions on citizenship, for instance. Before, the children of any British citizen could claim British citizenship too. After the changes, it is only the children of those British citizens who were born in Britain who can claim citizenship – i.e. the British parent must have been born in Britain.]
Would a passport holder have a right to vote?
[Daphne – No. The vote in Malta is tied to residency as well as citizenship. That’s why there are thousands of Maltese citizens in Australia and Canada who are not on the electoral roll in Malta. But yes, if they come to live in Malta they will acquire the right to vote. If they go to live in another EU member state, however, they will have the right to vote there in local elections and European Parliament elections.]
Would a passport holder have a right for free medical treatment?
Back to electoral campaign mode are we? I hope we will not be inundated over the internet too with these advertisements.
Shouldn’t it read ‘new depths’? This seems to have been designed by the same people who produced the Labour logo.