I had initially set myself a challenge to try and write about Dr Tabone without mentioning his age, or saying that he spends much of his time surfing the internet, pottering around in his workshop or tinkering with one of his beloved clocks.

This should not have been impossible given that the former consultant ophthalmologist, foreign minister and President can fill many interesting minutes with stories to take your mind off such trivia, while the wife he has quarrelled with "over everything and nothing" in a most loving marriage stretching 60 years presents you with chocolate biscuits and coffee.

But the man who believes there is no better guide for governing the world than the 10 commandments, confesses that he cannot fry an egg and describes an hour`s nap on the armchair in the afternoon as the most important sleep of his life, set one condition himself: "Please don`t get me into any political controversy."

One formidable task is enough to contend with, so I will immediately concede defeat on the first count, inform your disbelieving eyes that he turned 89 last month, and make my first half-hearted attempt to honour the second by recording that Dr Tabone thinks the partisan two-party system is a remnant of Malta`s unfortunate colonial mentality.

"This mentality makes me exceedingly angry. I have been against colonialism ever since I could reason and that was why I entered politics, to help achieve independence. Colonialism has done a lot of harm in the world. Some good.... but at what price? At the price of servitude.

"Even now political parties bring over foreign sponsors to uphold their view of whether we should join the EU or not and convert our people.

"The foreign part of our culture is appreciated more than our own, which we Maltese are building up slowly and not very easily. This is what offends me."

Just in case you were in any doubt, Dr Tabone can still pack a punch, even if it is quite a charming one. However, much as the idealist in him is against the divisive nature of partisanship, the pragmatist can see no other alternative to political parties in a democracy, though he adds that they could do more to improve the situation in this country.

He believes that many people are still living in the past, and thinking in a way that is no longer valid today.

"Take the anti-globalisation movement; I am also anti-global, but you can`t change it."

The same must apply, he says, to the definition of what is an independent state today. The old concept of independence, where a country was lord and master, has been and gone, he maintains.

"Today, after September 11, even the most powerful nation in the world cannot be independent in that sense because it has been brought to its knees by 19 people."

Dr Tabone says that even the concept of sovereignty has changed and the most important factor today is maintaining security on the island. However, he does not believe that Malta can do this alone.

"If the US cannot defend its own security by itself, how can we? This is an aspect which is never mentioned in the talks about the EU.

"I used to push the concept that we should protect our security by signing agreements with countries that thought like us and had an interest and the power to defend us. But after a number of wars it is clear that no one wants to send their own children to die for others.

"Malta could be taken by a small military or naval force in a short time as we are hardly in a position to defend ourselves, and our limited defence capabilities could be an invitation to some as yet unforeseen power to take us on.

"Therefore, being part of a continent which has made common defence a policy is our only means of security. I can see no other. But they only have to defend us if we are members. They would have no obligation to do so otherwise. No one owes us a living, though we believe that sometimes."

However, the man who served as a medical officer during the Second World War favours neutrality and is against the idea of having foreign troops in Malta. He is also opposed to Malta forming part of a powerful military group such as Nato.

That said, Dr Tabone believes the island cannot be indifferent to what is going on around it, such as the crisis in the Middle East, and is vociferous in his view that Palestine has a right to a state of its own.

If talking about the EU with anybody in this country is like walking on eggshells, then raising the subject with a former President who wants to be spared controversy throws up the prospect of drowning in a raw omelette.

Dr Tabone starts gently by saying that the EU question is not being very well proposed or opposed because certain issues are not mentioned. All "they" mention, he says, is how the hunters, agriculture and shoemakers will be affected.

"This is not the real issue of being in Europe. We cannot forget that Europe is a Europe of independent states and if we enter the EU we will have the greatest certificate of our independence. If you are not independent, you are not allowed in. So this movement of independence is a farcical one.

"We shall be voluntarily giving up some of our decision-making, and sharing in much wider decisions which will affect us whether we go in or not. But at least we will be there to express our views. This is the point."

Dr Tabone is perhaps in a better position than most to understand the concerns and doubts of those against membership because he had opposed it himself for a time while he was in the Nationalist Party as he feared Malta would once again become a colony.

His mind had been changed by the direction of his own political party and as a result of a meeting with a European Commissioner in Brussels.

But he stresses the caveat that he has always maintained: "Yes we should join, but under the right conditions.`"

"That is how the motion passed in the (Nationalist Party) executive and yet it is only sometimes mentioned. The result will only come at the end of the debate on the future of Europe. The crux of the matter, and the question of sovereignty and whatnot, will lie in the way power is distributed between the Commission and individual governments."

Dr Tabone says he is glad that Labour leader Alfred Sant is taking part in this debate, though he adds that the division in Malta on the subject is weakening the country`s bargaining position.

"We are enemies instead of being holders of different views. This is our biggest drawback."

Should the Church be contributing to the EU debate?

"No, no, no. And it is a mistake for anyone to push the bishops to speak about Europe, quoting the Pope."

Dr Tabone believes the pastoral letter written by the Bishops of Malta and Gozo is "perfect", particularly as the issue in Malta is purely political in his view.

"But whether we go in or stay out, our religion will not be affected in any way. It will be affected by our behaviour and by our Christian values which are going away... The two Gozitan bishops were wise not to yield," he maintains.

There is another thing of which he is unequivocally certain: that a referendum is the only way of knowing the people`s mind. He says that in an election there are many issues, whereas in a referendum there is only one. "If there is any other way of knowing the people`s will, please suggest it to me."

Moreover, he argues that the electorate has very little power in between elections, which is one of the defects of democracy.

Dr Tabone says that although democracy is the best political system known to man, efforts should be made to try and limit its defects, though no one seemed willing to try.

"One could, for example, limit the period of those elected or appointed to important political positions to no more than two consecutive terms."

He said that MPs and ministers did not always feel the mood of the electorate before important decisions between elections and only had their conscience to rely on. Moreover, some stayed on a little too long.

"But we have been fortunate in our political representation over the years and nothing I am saying about the defects of democracy takes anything away from them."

Turning to his own political career, Dr Tabone describes his stint as foreign minister between 1987 and 1989 as the period he most enjoyed. He was then appointed President, just two years into the watershed Nationalist legislature.

Did it come too soon?

"I never sought the Presidency... for me it was always too soon as I was enjoying my life as foreign minister. Fully enjoying it."

However, despite the Labour Party`s three-year boycott of his Presidency, which he says was quite unjust and hurt a lot, he made such a success of the post that the MLP then proposed him for a second term.

"I would not have accepted another term because I do not agree with it in principle. However, I would have stayed for another year but the Nationalist Party did not approve the extension.

"And then, when Ugo (Mifsud Bonnici) finished as President, the PN proposed him to serve another term. So anyone can see the story for themselves and draw their own conclusions. I am not commenting on it, but I am stating facts..."

He firmly believes that a President should serve for six years, instead of five, to make sure that he is outside the duration of the two legislatures. "That should be entrenched and it is not. Any government can change that," he says.

Whatever the duration, he believes that the post-holder needs to have an in-depth knowledge of local politics because every decision a President takes, although not executive, is political. Otherwise, he says, he would need political advisers and they would be the actual presidents.

Just because Dr Tabone is retired does not mean he is not preoccupied with the country`s domestic problems. Among them is the economic situation, which he says is worrying him a lot.

He believes the greatest political event to have negatively affected Malta in the economic sense was the fall of the Berlin wall - because it made Eastern Europe competitive.

"We cannot get any more foreign investment in Malta because the European or foreign investors can find cheaper places to produce their products."

He only sees two ways out of the problem: One is to reduce the standard of living, which he says is unthinkable, while the other remedy lies in increasing production.

"We can produce more. We have not changed the half-days in summer. This is the greatest calamity and no government has dared take it away."

"A solution to this two-month period has to be found, but we have to have the support of the unions. It`s no use going against them."

He points to his native Gozitans as a shining example of people who have overcome their natural handicaps by producing quality and quantity.

In fact, he would like to see the two islands linked, not merely by a bridge, but by road made from the country`s building waste as long as such a project was carefully planned and regulated.

Dr Tabone believes Gozo would only lose its charm if "stupid" governments granted unnecessary building permits as they had done at some locations in Malta.

"We can`t leave Gozo as a presepju," he says, and bolsters his argument by explaining how Venice flourished once it was joined to the mainland.

Perhaps Dr Tabone has been in the politically uncontroversial wilderness for a little too long.