Together with Prof Joe Pirotta, I present on Campus FM a weekly programme titled “Minn Poplu ghal Nazzjon.”  Throughout the programme we discuss the constitutional progression of the Maltese Islands since the coming of the British.

During the last edition we discussed the election of Dr George Borg Olivier as leader of the Nationalist Party and his first stint as Prime Minister. Prof Pirotta said that many in the party considered Borg Olivier to be a transitory leader stating that he did not have what it takes to lead the party and the country. Some were looking around and about waiting for the real leader to come forward.

Since Borg Olivies was not eternal, his leadership could be described as transitory but it was a transition which lasted from 1950 to the middle of the 1970s. This is not a short  time for a transitional leader, is it?

When Dr Eddie Fenech Adami was elected leader, if my memory serves me well, many said that he did not have what it takes to lead the party and the country out of the morass that Mintoff was leading it too. He was a village lawyer, some said, while  the Labour media lampooned him as a baby wearing nappies.

They got it wrong. His leadership was not one of the shortest and his achievement could in no way be described as minimal.

This is why I am not surprised when to-day some say the same things of Dr Simon Busuttil. I am certain that the man will stand the test of time and prove that he has got what it takes to do the task he has been entrusted to do.