Between 1996 and 1998, when a Labour Prime Minister, Alfred Sant, was at Castille, one of the first things he initiated on taking office was a review of the AFM's military capability. This examined the roles, tasks and operational effectiveness of the AFM.  He published a White Paper on the outcome of the review a year later containing over seventy detailed conclusions and recommendations. White Papers were also published on the formation of AFM Reserve Forces and of the AFM Staff Association.

In the wake of these White Papers, work proceeded to re-shape the professionalism and military capability of the AFM. Officers' practical and written promotion exams were introduced for promotion from lieutenant to captain and from captain to major. An annual technical and administrative inspection of all units by outside experts was introduced. Modest equipment purchases of off-shore patrol vessels, vehicles and aircraft were begun. A rationalisation exercise to standardise the many different items of equipment which had been given to the AFM by friendly nations was conducted. A number of boats, helicopters and other equipment which did not fit in with the AFM's new inventory were sold. A planned forward-looking equipment procurement plan was drawn up looking ten years ahead.

The AFM's already well-honed promotion system for soldiers and non-commissioned officers was further streamlined. The establishment and complement of the AFM headquarters was reorganised. The operational section of the headquarters, dealing with Malta's vast search and rescue region, was modernised and a purpose-built building began taking shape with new communications and other equipment. Priorities for the more efficient deployment of manpower were set. An attempt was made to reduce the wasteful use of military manpower on static guarding tasks.

Obligatory retirement at 55 years of age was introduced. Steps were put in hand to remedy the AFM's inadequate logistic support system. New emphasis was placed on the need for more professional individual and collective training with the forces of other countries, principally Italy, the United States and Britain.

The most impressive aspect of this transformational period for the AFM under Labour Prime Minister Sant's tenure in office was the continuation of the professional training of young officers and senior non-commissioned officers at overseas training colleges, which had been started in 1987. Virtually every young officer had been trained at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, or the equivalents in Italy, Germany (for the Maritime Squadron) or the United States. Efforts were now made, successfully, to send officers to the leading overseas staff colleges at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London and the Joint Command and Staff College in England.

I had the privilege of being Prime Minister Alfred Sant's adviser on the AFM throughout this period, a role I had also performed for Prime Minister Fenech Adami in 1996 and in 1998/99. The most striking aspect of the AFM throughout this period was the professionalism, educational standards and military competence of the new generation of young officers then coming through the junior and middle ranks.  It was clear to me that, through no fault of theirs, those senior officers then holding command appointments in the AFM simply had not had the opportunity for proper training and career development. 

But it was also clear that within a couple of years much of the dead wood would be removed naturally through retirement. A new, professionally trained cadre of young officers would start filling the key appointments. Good succession planning saw Brigadier Carm Vassallo spend a year at the Royal College of Defence Studies, and by 2001 when he became Commander the new-look AFM was beginning to take shape.

The foundations for the subsequent development of the AFM to the professional and competent force that it is today were established under the leadership of a Labour Prime Minister between 1996 and 1998, and continued unchecked thereafter. The AFM officers who emerged immediately after that period in command of companies, regiments and on the headquarters staff were able to cope efficiently with the huge challenges which arose after 2002 with the arrival of the first of a succession of waves of irregular immigration and the further expansion of the AFM's maritime and air wings.

As adviser to the government on irregular immigration between 2005 and 2013, I was able to see at firsthand how the AFM coped with the pressures of migration through the central Mediterranean. As the problems grew, both the search and rescue operational responsibilities and the manning, administration and organisation of the detention centres fell almost exclusively on the AFM. New equipment was acquired and new structures were put in place to cope.

First Brigadier Vassallo and then Brigadier Martin Xuereb tackled the additional tasks of the AFM and managed the day to day pressures on the Maritime and Air Squadrons, supported by some outstanding officers, such as Colonel David Attard, until recently the Deputy Commander (second-in-command), and Colonel Manwel Mallia, in charge of operations, among others.

It is therefore disheartening to read that Colonel David Attard, Staff College-trained and probably the most militarily professional officer of his generation, a future Commander AFM in the making, has had to resign from the AFM through crass political management. It is also hugely depressing to read of the shenanigans which have accompanied the recent promotion board for selection of majors to the rank of lieutenant colonel when it appears that the selection board consisted of four civilian members and the Commander AFM.

It beggars belief that civil servants with absolutely no knowledge of military matters should have been placed in the position of appointing military officers for promotion to positions where, as one newspaper aptly put it, “confidence in the quality of future AFM leaders who will be responsible for men's lives – for that is what soldiering is ultimately about - and for the security of these islands has been undermined by this botched selection process.”

It is therefore with dismay that one learns that Brigadier Xuereb has now also found himself unable to continue as the Commander AFM. He will probably be replaced by somebody who until a fortnight ago was only a Major, who now finds himself being parachuted into the top post – a post for which he clearly lacks any preparation or experience. The art of military command is unlike any other. It requires a combination of inspired leadership and mature judgment in the direction, coordination and control of military forces, often operating even in peace-time under the most adverse of conditions.    

It is vitally important that the Armed Forces of Malta, like any professional military organisation worthy of the name, are well led, professionally managed, politically untainted and non-partisan - as it has been for at least since 1996 when I first knew it under Prime Minister Alfred Sant and Prime Minister Fenech Adami. And as it was under Prime Minister Gonzi. All the good work which has been painstakingly built up over the last seventeen years to turn the AFM into a professional Force is in danger of being dismantled by heavy-handed political interference. There is a grave danger that recent events have undermined morale to the AFM's long term detriment.