Unravelling a presidency

George Abela will make an extremely good President. Not by what he does; for what he is. What the President does in performing the role of head of state of our republic is equivalent to the role of a constitutional monarch. It is largely ceremonial and routine.

The head of state represents the country. He and the flag are its symbols. Abela will be a great national symbol. Maltese to his roots, he is upright, sober and dignified. Those personal attributes will be enhanced by the fact that he was the choice of both parties which make up the House of Representatives. The people's choice, in fact, going by the widespread expressions of approval that followed the announcement of his selection.

Yet, with due respect to both political sides and to one and all, it is his personal attributes which shine first. He is a measured person. As behoves the office of president, he will be generally silent, speaking in public or to a private audience only when formally required to do so. When he greets and hosts new ambassadors. Addresses other official functions. Handing out honours on Republic Day. When he speaks to the nation over the Christmas festivities. When he speaks out to promote philanthropy. And, of course, when he reads out what the government of the day has prepared in the presidential speech at the opening of a parliamentary session.

Abela will do all that with calm and aplomb. So will he receive the Prime Minister when, in terms of section 87 of the Constitution, he calls upon him to update him on current government business and plans.

The Prime Minister will find him a careful listener ready, like past presidents who were able to do so, to give him detached counsel. The Prime Minister, a friend told me, has acquired a great adviser. Not all presidents were in a position to extend that service, which depends on the prime minister of the day. The George Abela-Lawrence Gonzi tandem, I believe, will easily allow for that.

Perhaps belying the undercurrent of expectation evident this week, Abela will not "speak out" in public. Only one president did that, the late Paul Xuereb when he was in acting capacity. He strode to the state television station and passionately addressed a nation which had become like a tribe that lost its head. I do not believe there will be occasion for that during Abela's presidency. Our political class has matured. Differences are expressed in excessive partisan bickering, yes, but not in veiled or open violence, placing of bombs, shooting of guns, murder, even. By God's mercy we are past that. So the president is nowadays seen but not heard from, unless formally.

We got to the present calm through sniffy trial and bad error. The agreement over Abela by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition was historic.

Abela comes from the Labour camp yet was nominated by a Nationalist Prime Minister. Gonzi took the initiative in circumstances which unravelled clumsily. Joseph Muscat made it known he would be presenting the Prime Minister with a shortlist of names the Labour Party felt were suitable for consideration as head of state. Some sad elements within the party leaked the fact that, completely unknown to me, I was under consideration by Muscat to be included in the list. The calculated leak backfired. It did not affect me, since I was not at all interested in the position.

Nevertheless it effectively made the Prime Minister take the initiative away from the Leader of the Opposition. That the result turned out well for the Labour Party too was thanks to the sense - and guile - of Gonzi in putting forward Abela's name.

Had he not been accepted, the Prime Minister, I believe, would have nominated a person from the Nationalist ranks. Muscat, whose grasp of our peculiar political framework grows by the day, was quick enough to accept Gonzi's proposal, even though he knew he would face some sharp barbs and dissent within his party.

Thanks to the two leaders, the chance to come up with an agreed name, and one from the opposition ranks, was not scuppered. Those who leaked the original story were hoisted with their own petard.

An agreed presidency was not spun away, as it had been not so long ago, when Eddie Fenech Adami was Prime Minister. Then he made two attempts at some form of consensus. Both were blasted away. One concerned the selection of a person from the Labour ranks to act as president when the incumbent was absent or indisposed. Labour put forth a name, a doctor. Dr Fenech Adami predictably approached another Labour doctor, who declined in view of his party's stand.

On another occasion there was an effort to appoint a president from outside the political class. The name of a former senior civil servant was put forward. Labour was ready to agree, provided he made way should it win the following general election. On the Nationalist side a politician was half against the appointment because the selected person limped due to a physical impairment. Sad but, I am told, true. Championing disabled people, like electing a president, is not a flawless process.