Abrogative Referendum Government has enacted this legislation in great haste without due consideration to the principle of consultation that the LP promised during the last election campaign. Most Maltese citizens are still to this day unaware of the possible implications of the Individual Investor Scheme, since it was not discussed during the last electoral campaign and was not part of the manifesto of the Labour Party. Unlike what is being stated by some, the introduction of these amendments to the Citizenship Act depart from the concept of Citizenship as understood up to now and so should be subject to an abrogative referendum. Although this act does not infringe the letter of the law - granting citizenship against a donation of a sum of money after the process of due diligence - goes against the spirit of our constitution.The most obnoxious aspect of the law that will be signed by President George Abela today or in the coming days is the fact that the names of the persons who would be granted Maltese citizenship under this law would not be published and there is NO OBLIGATION for these persons to have ever resided in Malta or to have ever had any contact with Malta or with the Maltese, before they were granted citizenship. Action should be taken by all those who believe that they may proffer their service to their country to safeguard their countrys reputation and well-being, to collect signatures for a petition to be presented to Parliament to demand that a referendum is called to abrogate the Individual Investor Programme. This is required to avoid irreparable damage that may result to the countrys reputation when great harm may be done to all of us, if a wrong impression is transmitted that Malta is a tax haven by granting citizenship to tax dodgers. Such an impression may constitute the ground for counter measures by the European Union or the United States to safeguard their interests, especially now that all countries are being effected by a greater recession than that of the 1930s and momentous decisions are taken on the basis of impressions which do not always correspond with facts.Such action would ruin our financial services sector, which is one of the industries which has kept us out of the worst effects of the recession. Let us not kid ourselves, the industrialised countries have already declared that they would leave no stone unturned to uproot tax non-compliance and money laundering. The Maltese people are being requested to take a too large a risk ,while the company - Henley & Partners - will take an immediate return in commissions running into the millions of euros.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 14:29:49 +0000
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