I was stunned with Joseph Muscat's total blow-off on the national TV station last week. We are now so used to his supercilious, macho-man attitude that his visible uncomfortable stance, while being interviewed, conquered the whole programme. Even worse, it brought to the forefront the reality that, no matter how long he has been preaching the "new season, political earthquakes, and progressive ideas" nursery rhyme, the long-existent inefficiency of the Labour Party has only been covered superficially and is now cracking its way to the head.

It was only last year that the same Dr Muscat, on the same programme and on the same station, when confronted by me and other fellow youths, disdainfully dubbed us as a bunch of old people and relapsed to his gastronomic preference of eating burgers and chips rather than coming to terms with reality and the issues at stake in this country. A year later, he then tags himself with the elderly. I cannot but say how right Leon Trotsky was to say that old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man.

In the meantime, Dr Muscat is still trying to convince the world that he will become Malta's youngest and most progressive Prime Minister. But who needs a young "Prime Minister" who, only after 22 months in power, can only shed his responsibilities for he is now growing old?

At middle age, we expect the person to be opening up like a rose not closing up like a cabbage. It goes on to confirm, black on white, that, in the face of the economic crisis our country has undergone, he (the potential "young Prime Minister") would have discarded any government intervention, as he has continuously done from his opposition seat, and Malta would have ended up as the second Greek economy. In his 22 months of leadership, we have incessantly been faced with Dr Muscat's obsession with the "new" when it is, first and foremost, his party that needs to adhere to the definition of freshness.

Maybe, Dr Muscat and the rest of his advisers have not noticed that becoming the country's leader is not a beauty contest as in winning America's Next Top Model or whoever is cooler is the one who wins. Lawrence Gonzi may not be the one who acts cool in public but, in reality, he needs not act as the chilled Prime Minister when he has the track record to prove him right all the way.

Having the thicker skin to resist is the least but, equally important, skill that an aspiring Prime Minister should have. At least, it is what Tony Blair, Dr Muscat's life-long hero, has continuously declared.