Malta's candidacy for the post of Secretary General of the Commonwealth was no wild adventure. It was a very carefully-crafted candidacy that was carried out following careful consideration and consultation and taking into account the particular circumstances of the Commonwealth.
Firstly, as has been repeatedly stated by the current Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth had no tradition of choosing a Secretary General on a regional basis. Had that been the case, then the argument, attractive in its simplicity but intrinsically ludicrous, that "it was Asia's turn" should have meant that only candidates from Asian countries should have been fielded.
Secondly, by April of this year, that is only seven months before the date of the Kampala CHOGM, the field was completely open. No country had presented a candidate. It was widely known that India was very hesitant to field a candidate because it had just lost the candidacy it fielded for the Secretary General of the United Nations. India's candidate, Shashi Tharoor, was well known as UN Under-Secretary and very highly qualified and capable of carrying out the task. He lost to another Asian from South Korea, Ban Ki-moon. The regional method is strongest in the United Nations and its agencies. The Commonwealth, and this is a loss, may now have joined this logic.
Malta presented its candidacy in a clear field: We were the first on the scene, albeit for a few months. In those few months, the Foreign Office mandarins of certain countries pressurised India to field a candidate. Eventually, after different names had been considered, the choice settled on the Indian High Commissioner for the UK, Kamalesh Sharma. Malaysia also announced formally its candidate, the current Minister of Culture who was a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, only to withdraw it after a very short period of time. Mohan Kaul, the director of the Commonwealth Business Council, also presented his own candidacy which, however, in Kampala, was not considered by the leaders as no one member country had endorsed it. The scene was set on a candidacy tussle.
Thirdly, when India's candidacy was announced, our campaign had been under way and our supporters, some of whom openly stuck with us till the end, encouraged Malta to carry on. Ours was the only candidacy fielding a politician, a Foreign Minister, someone with a 20-year parliamentary experience of which almost 10 in a ministerial function closely related to the economic and political development of this country over the years.
Besides Mr Kaul, I was the only other candidate heavily involved with Commonwealth tasks, as both chair of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group on the Harare Declaration (CMAG) safeguarding Commonwealth democratic principles and chair of the Steering Committee of the Commonwealth's major ICT for Development programme, Commonwealth Connects.
Fourthly, we almost made it. The vote was taken on Saturday at 10 a.m. or thereabouts. A day earlier the assessment of many - who were not members of the Maltese delegation - was that we may well have edged ahead.
The seriousness and coherence with which we had chaired CMAG on the issue of Pakistan on November 12 and November 22 had attracted many new votes to our camp. The closeness of the contest was clearly felt by our competitors. In the end, together with the help of some "big fellas", they pulled together in the last hours of this candidacy to achieve their result.
This is an assessment, of course, not a scientific rendition of what happened.
I was interviewed by Sir David Frost for his Al Jazeera's Frost Around The World on Friday at lunchtime and there, on Friday, a day before the vote was taken, he makes his own assessment of the situation at that time, reflecting that of others who were taking soundings. Readers may wish to see the interview for themselves on Youtube... it comes up if you search "Sir David Frost Michael Frendo".
Fifthly and finally, after the election of the new Secretary General, we held two press conferences in Kampala. The first by the Prime Minister and myself, the second by Mr McKinnon and myself. The Maltese journalists present there saw and heard for themselves and made their own personal assessment of the strength and impetus of our candidacy. We lost but we lost with dignity and having asserted Malta's contribution on the international stage. In the words of Mr McKinnon, Malta's "positive profile globally has been raised hugely".
Dr Frendo is Minister of Foreign Affairs.