As a newsman all my adult life, possibly even longer, I have always believed this idea that people in high places – as some sort of special-caste untouchables – should not talk to the media is not only fallacious but also ridiculous. In a democratic country we need to have our leaders, elected, employed and constitutional, free and able to talk publicly about issues and problems that inevitably crop up in the nation’s everyday life.

I remember being elated a few years back when it was mooted that Dom Mintoff, Malta’s old political warhorse and a statesman in his own right recognised the world over, was being considered by the two major parties as a possible candidate for the post of President of the Republic. Why? Because I knew that with Mintoff running the presidential palace we would have undoubtedly seen a remarkable change in the way things are done at all levels of Maltese society. He certainly would not have agreed to play the role of the ever-obliging, no-balls President of the Republic.

I was convinced he would not have tolerated anyone treating him like the Queen of England, in the sense of using him solely and purposely for rubber-stamping the whole political and social process on these Islands. It is why I have always been a Republican, even when we were supposedly independent with a foreign queen (the real thing, of course, not the transgender version) injecting blue blood into our otherwise central Mediterranean psyche.

That golden opportunity, at least from a journalistic perspective, was lost when the whole proposition was suddenly withdrawn, as if it had never really been entertained. However, not all hope was lost. With George Abela’s appointment more than a year and four months ago as the new Head of State – admittedly still a breakthrough in Maltese constitutional and ideological history – it was obvious we were still within our senses in ardently hoping for a rejuvenated presidency.

In all fairness, his predecessor, Eddie Fenech Adami, had also tried during his five-year tenure to give some impetus to the post by publicly making personal remarks on some hot national issues, but most of that effort was wasted as a result of a somewhat hesitant, no-follow-up attitude. Sadly, people today still discuss his Napoleonic-style appointment to the post more than his declared belief in a stronger, more outward-looking presidency.

I am surprised that some people seem to have objected to the President calling a press conference to address an issue relating directly to his office. They either think the president should be a mere flesh-and-blood symbol to be exhibited when the political hierarchy feels the need to do so, or they simply do not know George Abela.

Way back in April of last year, this very column in this very same newspaper had declared that with Dr Abela as President, Malta was in for a refreshing change. It would sound foolish to crow “I told you so”, but I think that time has well and truly proved us (I know, I know, only kings and queens can use the first person plural, ha! ha!) right.

If the President of the Republic cannot call a press conference to tackle whichever problem or issue he deems fit to receive his attention, I don’t know why we should even have one. We might as well take it in turns, citizen after citizen, the Gozitans not excluded, to sign all Gonzi acts, foreign tender-convenient updates, taxes and hidden taxes into laws. Wouldn’t some people I know love it.

If anyone from among those who appointed George Abela, as well as those who supported his appointment, thought he would be yet another president and another name on the marble-plaque list at The Palace, he or she could not have been any more wrong. Dom Mintoff would have provided more fireworks, but George Abela doesn’t mind letting off those he finds.

That the government has appointed a board of inquiry to “establish the facts” after reports that documents belonging to the Office of the President had been circulated among journalists, as President George Abela revealed at his press conference, is proof enough the powers that be have full confidence in, and are unquestionably fully aware of, Dr Abela’s mettle.

The departure of one palace official and his subsequent replacement by another is, of course, pretty humdrum stuff, but the very possibility of leaks is a matter of much more concern and the President was right not only in going public about it but also in swiftly taking the bull by the horns. What did some commentators want, a Buckingham Palace-style spokesman doing a kind of ventriloquist’s act?

Rather than closeting himself in the hush-hush, gilt-edged world of the traditional presidency, George Abela made it absolutely clear he was not willing to be part of the palace wallpaper and, conversely, was determined to fight any such media stories tooth and nail. Just days later he was talking to that very same media about a new rest-oration project at Verdala Castle. That is very typical of the man.

That great wit Oscar Wilde once insisted that good kings (and queens, with whom he must have been quite familiar at a different social level) are the only dangerous enemies that modern democracy has. In our case, hundreds of royal years later, good presidents may have served their purpose in our newly-achieved nationhood.

Today we need more than a figurative presence at The Palace. President Abela has predictably taken the cue. So stop treating him like a queen. Oh, you know which queen.