Undoubtedly, the government’s intention to start selling Maltese passports to those who are ready to donate €650,000 to the Island has overshadowed its grand plans to sell the budget to the electorate as some sort of manna for which everyone should be grateful. No wonder it was in such a hurry to rush the law that will allow this to happen through all the parliamentary stages.

As the debate on the controversial bill continued in parliament this week, the Opposition continued to reveal the pitfalls of the Individual Investment Programme (IIP) scheme proposed by the government. This notwithstanding, up to the time of writing, the government has shown no sign of willingness to take on board suggestions put forward by the Opposition to change the nature of the scheme to one that is more beneficial to Malta. The arrogance that Labour in government is showing simply because it has a comfortable majority in Parliament, is incredible.

This arrogance and lack of respect for Parliament has also been shown by the agency chosen by government to run the scheme, Henley and Partners. Henley and Partners have been claiming that the Malta IIP programme has been launched even before the law is enacted. In fact, the agency began marketing the Malta programme on 3 October, when the bill was actually not published until 8 October. Of course, they are eager to start selling our passports to faceless individuals or groups of people, because the money they will be earning is good, very good indeed. And once the bill goes through, these new citizens of the Republic of Malta will remain faceless because government is insisting that the names are not to be revealed.

People are worried about this bill, seriously worried. And they should be worried. We should all be worried. Such a programme is bound to attract people who have the money but who also come with baggage. Our passport will now serve as an excuse for all sorts of shadowy characters to make their way into Malta and the EU.

Forget the due diligence the government is promising. We cannot believe these people will act with rigorous due diligence on prospective passport buyers when they failed to realise that someone like Shiv Nair, who is so close to them, is black-listed by the World Bank. So let’s expect wealthy Russians to turn into Maltese-EU citizens for their own reasons. In fact, Henley and Partners is already advertising the programme in Russia. A letter it has circulated in Russia mentions the fact that getting a Maltese passport will give the applicant the ability to live, work and study in Europe and the UK without any limitations. Basically, it is advertising entry to Europe and the UK by the back door and getting around the immigration rules of other specific countries.

But who cares about our reputation? Surely not Henley and Partners which, on its website, is promoting Malta in this way: “Malta also has an important shipping register and is one the world’s preferred jurisdictions for tax-free yacht registrations.” In recent years, a Nationalist government went out of its way to ensure that, as a country, we did not sell Malta as a free jurisdiction! On that basis we have been able to maintain a good and clean reputation.

But this damage to our reputation does not stop here. On the same website, Henley and Partners state: “To establish yourself or your business, Malta will require securing relationships with key partners such as government officials…” Do you believe that? The company entrusted with selling our passports to only God knows who is now promoting our little Island as a place where you can only get things done if you are very close to government officials. Admittedly, under a Labour government this has become very necessary but, for God’s sake, this is not something we should boast about!

Finally, how will all this affect the American visa waiver programme successfully negotiated by a Nationalist government? Will the US government retain such a programme in respect of a country that has decided to start selling its passports for such a measly sum?

The Big Sale is about to start and the Labour government and Henley and Partners seem to be the only people excited about it. The people are not, but does Labour care? Surely not, for it managed to deceive those people into electing it to power. And 2018 is still far away.

Charlò Bonnici is Opposition Spokesman for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change