Almost two years ago, Malta might have lost its dignity or was on the verge of losing it. This was all about the controversy surrounding the selling of Maltese citizenship to people with strong financial backing, who will be awarded, or else have already been granted entry to EU member states.
Since then, countless terror attacks have occurred all over Europe, the latest being the Paris brutal attack that killed 130 people, all due to the passports that are being bought or else created illegally for them to be passed from one person to another.
So when we come face to face with such a situation, were terrorists with all kind of religious beliefs given a passport by many other countries without us knowing due to their strong financial background? Is it safe to have a 'passport scheme' regardless of the €1.15 million investment? Especially when the list of those granted citizenship under the Citizenship Investor Programme has not yet been published?
No wonder that back in October in a report tabled in Parliament by Dr Godwin Grima, the regulator of the citizenship scheme said that the publication of names is possibly why applicants are shying away, as it is particularly sensitive to those hailing from particular regions. These 'so-called' investors want an easy way in and out of every country without us knowing or hearing about it.
When the passport scheme was introduced; Henley & Partners, which had won the public concession to market and is currently selling what is known as the Individual Investor Programme, expects around 200 to 300 foreign individuals to acquire Maltese citizenship every year. One question continuously being asked is, is that safe? How is the vetting of these applicants being done? Is it being done properly? After the 'filth' that was found in Identity Malta headquarters, I would not be surprised if anything out of the ordinary has already happened without us knowing.
This passport scheme of the past two years has been giving away what our grandparents worked for - achieving the hard-won freedom and independence that many countries wish for; we are giving the holder easy access to all EU countries and to travel from London, Rome, Madrid, and Paris without any problems for them, but we must ask: how are they going to make use of it?
Now, after all the mistakes and issues of bad governance by a number of leaders across Europe; they are trying to solve the problem by increasing and coordinating border checks around most of Europe's major countries. It is never too late, but whose mistake was it in the first place?
During the European Council which met on 13th November 2015 in Brussels, one of the main points was that we need to work much more together, and truly respect the term 'European Union' if we are to slowly but surely protect our countries from terror attacks happening.
Apart from the increase in border checks, we must also make sure that the authorities in charge are functioning properly, as they are there to protect their country and not leave it open to terror. Unfortunately, nowadays we have to keep an eye on each and every person with regard to information on any threat, because as perfectly stated in an article in The Malta Independent, "A person can be turned into a seething mass of hate in just a couple of months." And that "We are all part of the problem and we must all be part of the solution."
Let us not be vulnerable, but let us strengthen one another in order to make Europe and the rest of the world strong again. Let us be on the right side of history.