“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

Theodore Roosevelt couldn’t be more correct. As an American President, he was more than aware of the responsibilities of governing and the difficulties of taking difficult decisions.

...There is no benefit of hindsight when you are in government- Francis Zammit Dimech

If we rewind the clock to two years ago we can apply this thought to perfection to the crisis Malta faced during the civil war that broke out a mere 684 miles to our south – our neighbour Libya.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was faced with one of the toughest decisions of his political career and, possibly, the toughest in the history of these islands.

The Prime Minister did the right thing: he didn’t play his cards, he simply did the right thing.

From the very outset, he condemned the Gaddafi regime and its violence on the Libyan people and asked for him to go. He was unconditional and went straight to the point.

In hindsight, it’s always easy to say the Prime Minister made the right decision. Everything is much easier and clearer in hindsight. Yet, if we take ourselves back to the tense and volatile geopolitical reality we were working in two years ago it was hardly easy.

The Opposition was encouraging the Government not to rush and to sit on the fence until it is clear who would emerge victorious! Indeed, it was unclear for many months whether the ‘rebels’ would actually be victorious. Muammar Gaddafi’s strength was relatively unknown and, yes, it was feared.

Despite all, the Prime Minister was steadfast: Malta would be on the side of the Libyan people. This is why he decided to allow the Mirage jets to land in Malta and offered refuge to the two Libyan defectors.

Equally, the Prime Minister refused to give in to threats from the Gaddafi regime to take the jets back. He was on the right side of history.

Many in Malta would have read about the Libya crisis or watched it on the news. Few realised that Malta was in the eye of the storm and a crucial link to the survival of thousands of Libyan people.

The Prime Minister insisted that all actions should reflect a ‘business as usual’ approach for the general population. Hundreds of public servants were working around the clock ensuring public safety together with ministers and NGOs.

The result was the largest humanitarian success story this country has ever witnessed.

We saved thousands of lives: 21,000 fleeing Libya in the first two weeks; thousands of Libyans surrounded by Gaddafi troops in Misurata; hundreds of wounded who came to Malta for treatment, many on the brink of death; saving Tripoli from thirst... The list is endless. Malta provided solidarity in concrete terms.

Malta was there when needed and the Prime Minister stood up to be counted. Once again, we were on the right side of history.

One only has to look through the media segment that openly supports the Malta Labour Party of two years ago to realise how all news on the Libya crisis was relegated to the inner pages or covered as secondary news items.

Indeed, Roosevelt couldn’t be more right: doing nothing is truly the worst thing. It’s like sitting on the fence, neither here nor there.

That’s the Labour Party for you. They sit on the fence or take the wrong decisions. Each time it mattered they were on the wrong side of history. In the Libya crisis, they simply wished it away, sat back and waited.

Governing is no game of cards. Often, a Prime Minister has to take quick decisions that can have a ripple effect on our quality of life as we know it.

Thanks to Gonzi’s ability to know what decisions to take when and how, Malta’s airspace remained open, flights in and out of our country were unaffected and life continued as normal.

The forthcoming five years will equally require making the right decisions at the right time. There is no benefit of hindsight when you are in government.

To give an even more classic example: Joseph Muscat acknowledges that he was opposed to European Union membership but realised that it was a good idea when he became a member of the European Parliament.

Where is the catch in his own argument? Quite simple, really. Had the ‘No’ vote prevailed he would not have become an MEP and would, therefore, never have realised that it is better to form part of the EU!

That is why there is no benefit of hindsight for the persons we need to entrust with governing our country for the next five years. To govern you need foresight – hindsight does not come into the equation – and having no foresight can literally spell disaster.

We need to choose the team with a proven track record for making the right decisions at the right time.

And, considering that the waters that surround us are as turbulent as they have been over the past five years, this is no time for taking risks.

Francis Zammit Dimech is Minister of Foreign Affairs.