The PM announced yesterday that he’s setting up a ‘passport sale’ monitoring board that includes the Opposition – and it turns out he hadn’t even told them yet, let alone got their consent
Simon Busuttil was good outside parliament today, on the subject of the sale of passports. This bit in Malta Today is particularly telling:
“When the final vote is taken on Tuesday, we will once again vote against the law and if does go through we will renew our commitment to stop the scheme and revoke the citizenships granted by this government through the scheme once we are in government.”
He added that if the PN is returned to government, the party would also divulge the names of persons who were granted citizenship through the IIP.
On the monitoring committee proposed by the government, Busuttil said the proposal to include the opposition on a board which monitors the scheme it was opposed to in principle was “insulting.”
“How can we monitor a scheme if we disagree with in principle?” Busuttil said, adding that however the opposition was keeping its options open and could accept to be on the board once the bill is approved.
He pointed out that the opposition does not exclude the possibility of sitting on the board and divulge the names of applicants, without waiting for the next general election.
I LOVED that – ‘we might accept to sit on the board so as to reveal the names’. WONDERFUL. Jabba the Hutt’s spleen must be bleeding.
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Now that’s sheer genius.
The real patriots among us were waiting for a leader. It seems we finally got one.
By way of a celebratory anthem, here’s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX1Da8YHU9s
[Daphne – Ah, our friend Michael Briguglio’s band. I wonder if they’re still waiting for Willie Mangion to find them a garage in which to rehearse.]
Speaking of which, what is AD’s position on this whole sordid business? Do they have a position at all?
[Daphne – Today: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131109/local/citizenship-jobs-in-financial-services-may-be-under-threat-ad.494011#.Un7FHCcueV4 ]
Ah, splendid.
Simon, you have got our attention…. Give them hell!
How about joining this?
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Against-the-Selling-of-Maltese-Citizenship/682889145068891
Muscat wanted to create a Second Republic but has changed his mind and gone for a Banana Republic instead.
This is not about the Individual Investment Programme, is it? The nation is being duped by an act of misdirection, conjured by the greatest conman in Maltese politics since Mintoff.
It is really all about the small amendment that will not allow the names of naturalised citizens to be published. It is this that will enable Joseph Muscat and Manuel Mallia to become Purveyors of EU Passports, starting 2013, by Special Appointment to the Peoples’ Republic of China.
It is this amendment, and nothing else, that makes it possible for the minister to dispense passports at will and in secret, using any available scheme or mechanism, IIP or other, or none at all for that matter, be it for free, against payment, or in settlement of dues.
Of course, an excuse was needed to disguise the real intentions behind the amendment, and to make it all as palatable as possible. Hence the “clever” ploy of selling passports on the cheap.
The potential for harm makes this whole machination dirty and sleazy, and conspiring with third parties against EU interests could be construed as treason. In my opinion, all persons involved are treading on dangerous ground, and the matter will one day come back to haunt them.
Way to go Simon. And we’re 100% behind you on this one.
Manuel Mallia stated in parliament yesterday that the appointment of the monitoring committee was in addition to some other monitoring board. Amazingly, he repeatedly referred to this extra safeguard as ‘double standards’.
This scheme is wrong, period. it creates no jobs (except for Henley). It will destroy the solid reputation built by the PN (nothing new, we are used to becoming a pariah state under Labour, every single time they’re in government) and upon which our financial services and gaming industries depend.
Our IT industry in turn has a very large dependence on these two industries and when they go down, it will go down with them. So while this scheme may bring in cash, that cash will be needed to pay the dole to the people whose jobs it will destroy.
You can whine all you like about how the PN did this or that in government but that’s an argument for children in a schoolyard. Labour is there now, not the PN, and this scheme fails all the benchmarks Joe Muscat et al were harping about six months ago, not least the fact that it was not in their manifesto and hence they have no mandate for it.
To those who thought Labour deserved a chance and can now see what a mistake that was (including some columnists and NGOs who are suddenly shocked about this and other bad Labour actions), you can start fixing your mistake next June.
Can’t the Opposition make an annual parliamentary question and ask the names of those that have bought citizenship? They have to answer right?
[Daphne – Yes, they will answer: to say that the law precludes publication of the names.]
It would be very interesting to verify when Henley registered their company in Malta.
And who their Malta representatives are.
Simon Busuttil is steadily growing into the shoes of a great leader. I did not think he had it in him.
With so many people against the scheme, according to maltatoday’s survey, I think that an abrogative referendum may well be successful. This could take place at the same time as the EP elections and be the main campaign issue for the PN.
If the people who are given a passport have a vote, and if you say that the government can sell a very large number of these, wouldn’t it be possible for these new voters to become quite an important voting section of the population. Effectively the government could be buying itself a large number of votes who would never vote PN which would remove their citizenship.
[Daphne – Citizenship is a prerequisite for the right to vote in general elections, but there are other requirements too. There are thousands of Maltese citizens in North America and Australia who don’t have the right to vote in Malta.]