Clyde Puli, the new secretary general of the Nationalist Party is a sociologist. Never has his background been more useful.  The Qormi-based politician happens to be at the right place at the right time. 

Not the easiest of times, of course - the Nationalist Party emerged from the 2013 electoral defeat flat on its back. 

Following an, at times, bitter leadership campaign, it is now, slowly, getting back on its feet. It will take time, and lot of hard work and effort. But it will. 

However, this is not the purpose of this article, for what is truly at stake is the very existence of the Nationalist Party. 

I'm not implying that the Nationalist Party is in danger of becoming extinct. No matter what government apologists want us to believe, the Nationalist Party has a solid voting base. 

But there is one, pertinent, question which the Nationalist Party needs to answer: What does it stand for? And there is no straightforward answer to that question. If there was, the Nationalist Party would have, perhaps, avoided two electoral beatings in a row - at least of the mammoth scale which they were. 

For the answer to that question, lies in a deep analysis of the party, it's standing in today's society - and the changes happening, at a fast pace, within society. 

There was a time when the Nationalist Party led. That ship has long sailed. But it needs to be revisited. If not, its prospects are grim. And this is where Puli's sociological background comes to the rescue. 

During the leadership campaign, Adrian Delia, now Nationalist Party leader - for those who have been living under a rock the last five months - came up with the idea of a sociological study of Maltese society. 

That must have been on Puli's suggestion - himself a self-declared Delia campaigner. Now is the time to do it. It will take time; it must be done properly, and professionally. And no, a sociological study of Maltese society and the changes within it does not happen using the internal structures of the party - although their help should be sought - but by having demographic experts, and sociologists on board. 

Clyde Puli is well positioned to understand what is required for this task, and to identify the right people to carry it out.

For really and truly, Clyde Puli's situation is similar - though times have surely changed, to that faced by Louis Galea when he took the helm of the secretary general's office shortly after Eddie Fenech Adami was elected leader of the Nationalist Party. 

The Nationalist Party had emerged from long years in government, followed by successive beatings at the polls. It had to reinvent itself to become electable again, and to do that it had to answer the question which today is back to haunt it: What does the Nationalist Party stand for? Fr Peter Serracino Inglott, God rest his soul, was roped in - and on Galea's instructions was asked to make heads and tails of the changes within Maltese society and how the party should reinvent itself to lead again.

It took a long time for that to happen, but when it did, the Nationalist Party became, electorally, unbeatable and, more so a change agent. The rest is history. 

That question is back on table, and it must be dealt with without delay. Adrian Delia is aware of the party's existentialist challenge, and with Clyde Puli, the sociologist/politician on board, he is well placed to get to the bottom of it, and come up with a reinvented, relevant Nationalist Party.

Frank Psaila is a lawyer and anchors Iswed fuq l-Abjad on NET TV