Joseph Muscat is wrong if he thinks he can fool people all the time. After his government was forced to redraw the sale-for-citizenship scheme following widespread criticism to it both in Malta and in the international press, he came out saying:
“This government is not proud; it listens and we have talked to the stakeholders. Yes, we could have done it a lot better and I shoulder full responsibility. But what’s important is that we listened to the people’s concerns and now have a more onerous scheme with which the country will attract talented people who will also contribute to the country’s wealth.”
The truth is that the government has only partly listened to the country’s concerns and it has done so only after a great deal of harm was done to the country’s image abroad. “Partly” because it has now transpired that it has not, in fact, consulted all the stakeholders in the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development.
The government could have easily avoided the bad press had it listened to the Opposition and to the rest of the stakeholders at the time when it mattered most, that is, in Parliament when the House was debating the amendments to the existing citizenship law.
The government has acted arrogantly and even at this late stage it is still failing to understand the people’s deep sentiment over the right to citizenship. After it has blundered so much over the issue, it is now accusing the Opposition of raising objections to cause obstacles.
It is not a question that the government “could have done it a lot better”, as the Prime Minister has said. The government could have done it right from the start had it listened to what the people were saying. Its attitude is not very different to that which it adopted when, after being elected, it forgot all about what it preached about meritocracy and began appointing to sensitive posts people seen to be politically divisive.
The government may have to pay a political price for this when the time comes, the earliest being the election to the European Parliament in May. However, tarnishing the country’s image abroad, as the passport scheme did, does no good to Malta’s standing.
As a member of the European Union, the country is more rigorously scrutinised today than ever before, meaning it would need to be careful about its actions. This does not mean that we do not protect our rights or that we do not stand our ground when this is required.
It only means that the country would need to act responsibly at all times and that the country’s leaders measure their words, especially when addressing a foreign audience. The government has now sought to repair the damage as, besides the cash contribution, applicants would also have to buy property and invest in government stocks, bonds or shares.
But do the new provisions ensure a bond with the island that is strong enough to justify earning applicants Maltese citizenship?
The Nationalists do not think so, as do not necessarily ensure any personal physical presence on the island.
The bond the government says the revised scheme creates is still somewhat superficial.
Having refused to budge on this most important aspect of the scheme in talks with the Opposition, the government is likely to go ahead with it when, had it listened enough, it could have created a scheme that enjoys widespread national support.