It is an indisputable fact that the choice of President George Abela was one of Lawrence Gonzi’s most inspired decisions. It is equally indisputable that President Abela has turned out to be one of Malta’s most popular persons in public life, if not the most popular.

So perhaps the President and his team might tend to consider the carping by a scandal-mongering paper and possibly the outpouring of a disgruntled former aide with disdain, as if it would be infra dig to reply to the scurrilous stories that have been ventilated.

But that, we argue, would be quite the wrong attitude to take.

It is true that the Head of the State, like monarchy, does not ‘do’ libels but there is an infinity of options between doing nothing and coming out with guns blazing.

Even in other countries, whether monarchic or republican, attacks undermining the Head of State do get replied, if not by the Person himself (or herself) at least by the Office. It is simply not enough to fob off questions by words spoken in confidence. Rather, such a tactic may in the end be even worse than simple silence.

For this is a matter that does not involve the President alone but also another institution that is very beloved by the Maltese – the Community Chest Fund. Over the past months, the country has seen how the present President has boosted its popularity through giving the whole system a much clearer transparency and showing the various needs it tries to help out with.

But a cloud had crept in just before the Christmas money collection binge in a rather, to our eyes today, curious battle whether the President’s charity should have been registered with the Commissioner or whether it was exempt. That was a rather unseemly tussle.

Even so, however, at no point in that debate was there any suggestion that the Community Chest Fund was also exempt from getting its accounts audited and published.

Now that the fund has come under attack, along with the President, it may be high time to consider not just getting it un-exempt but also registered, not just transparent but shown to be transparent. Caesar’s wife, etc...

Nor would it be enough to spare some choice words about the ‘whistleblower’ and the paper. To defend through besmirching those who attack is undignified, and counter-productive at the best of times.

This is the public forum and what may be acceptable when speaking to a small group of people does not quite work out with the general public.

There is, we admit, one issue which seems to be central, other than the Community Chest Fund. This is the care and restoration of the three presidential palaces – that in Valletta, San Anton and Buskett’s Verdala Castle. Each has its own particular, and huge, needs. Every successive President, like every successive Governor General before him, is tempted to ‘do something’. The past interventions by the Governors General have ranged from the ineffective to the damaging. There is clearly the need for in-depth, strategic, holistic restoration rather than piecemeal changes which may be reverted by the next incumbent.

The present President has opened up much that used to be closed to the public and that is clearly a good thing: through such initiatives the public got to know what it held and which it had never been conscious of. That is all the more reason to ensure that the public also gets to see that its heritage is being well cared for and enhanced.

In short and in conclusion, the Office of the President must not react to the current stories by a disdainful silence. Nor would it be a good idea to give itself exemptions from the rules that bind ordinary citizens – if we have to apply to Mepa to open a window, so too we expect the Office to do.

The current sniping will not undermine the love and affection that surrounds the President but a careful response can actually strengthen the love and care.