The sale of our citizenship scheme was for the past four months, and still is a priority on the national agenda, made it to the European Parliament and even reached world-wide news agencies. The accumulated negative effects which Malta has attracted to its shores have not as yet been quantified and I wonder if ever this would be.
Before I continue I am taking the liberty to ask you two simple questions. Do we really need to sell our citizenship? Is Malta cash strapped? I will attempt to answer these questions too.
The scheme has been severely flogged at all levels and is left to bleed. This has led Malta to lose the necessary credentials to attract foreign direct investment creating productive employment. Simultaneously the scheme lit the imagination of people with huge wallets. Whether this fancy would die in time is questionably.
At the time of writing, Saturday afternoon bad weather was taking its toll. Hopefully, by the time you’ll be reading this, the bad weather would have passed and the long hours of sunshine which we normally enjoy would have returned. On the other hand unfortunately, I seriously doubt whether Government is capable to stop, take some steps backwards and ponder for a while on it’s out of the hat proposal. Many have debated and penned articles about the sale of our citizenship, while many more had for and against views but opted to keep a low profile and were only willing to talk about this issue in private. Nonetheless, this silent majority counts and its views should be considered seriously rather than being ignored completely.
On my part, I still hold firm with my belief that citizenship should not be up for grabs, irrespective of the monies that this may attract. Regardless of the recent agreement reached between our Government and the EU Commission, our citizenship must remain a national issue and in our competence to decide upon. EU bureaucrats should not be the ones to have the final word on this issue. What they should ensure is that whatever decision we take at a national level does not put the EU foundations and other EU Treaties in jeopardy, or be subject to different interpretations.
The agreement reached between Government and the EU Commission on this issue may be seen by many as the end of this crusade. The fact that there is no clear answer on the minimum number of days that foreign investors have to spend in Malta in a one-year period to be eligible to buy our citizenship is room enough for those against and for those in favour to continue with this controversy.
Away from this controversy, the Nationalist Party would do well to hold strong on the basic principles against the scheme as promoted by Government. Basically, on two counts, this issue did not feature in the PL electoral manifesto and more importantly on the premise that our citizenship is dear to all Maltese citizens.
In this regard the PN leadership should do some serious reflection and adopt a strategy on how best to protect what has been ours for many, many years. A Party in Opposition is duty bound to protect and to take strong initiatives to oppose Government on issues which are most valued and treasured by the Maltese. The sale of our citizenship is one of them. The fact that Government had to change the sale of the citizenship legislation three times in a wink of an eye is ample proof of this amateurish proposal.
Malta is small in size but nonetheless we pride ourselves with our citizenship as we stood the test of time. Our heritage is unique and our national identity is recognised world-wide. Even our language is officially recognised. Our political leaders can sit where other world leaders sit and in many occasions make us proud. Unfortunately, the sale of our citizenship portrays Malta as an island which will do anything to pump monies into its coffers, under whatever guise it can. Now the rich can buy Maltese citizenship for cash in addition to whatever they dream about.
Our citizenship is more than a detached relationship between state and an individual, or a sentimental issue. It is an important value. Our citizenship is more like the heart and soul in a human being. Putting it up for sale? It jars. Badly.
This goes far beyond the sale of our “gold” and “silver” which the then Opposition, now in Government, accused previous PN governments of doing during the privatisation of a number of state entities. I am certain that many remember the harsh criticism levelled at the previous Government for implementing the privatisation programme. Not that it was all plain sailing, without pitfalls and hitches particularly during the implementation process. The privatisation of public companies, which at the time had been heavily subsidized by taxpayers, attracted new foreign direct investment, injected millions of euros, created new employment opportunities, and took-head-on new global challenges. Notwithstanding the fact that the privatisation of Government-owned companies was well and clearly defined in the PN electoral programme, it still came under heavy attack from the PL. Yet now, the PL in government is keen to sell citizenship, despite it not being on its electoral manifesto, by justifying the scheme by whatever means it can.
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