For Harold Wilson, a week was enough to see momentous change in politics. For Robert Abela, the jury is still out on whether his first week as prime minister signals the profound changes the country badly needs or the continuity that would leave Malta’s reputation in the gutter.

He himself has declared he stands for both change and continuity. This general vagueness of purpose allows him to escape the burden of expectation from expressing more specific objectives.

So to those not expecting much change, some of his decisions may have come as a pleasant surprise. While his Cabinet appointments retained the old reliables, such as Edward Scicluna in finance and Chris Fearne in health, there was much reshuffling and new blood elsewhere.

His decisions have also included the resignation of the notorious person of trust in the Office of the Prime Minister, Neville Gafà, who had been connected with a visa scam and Libyan warlords. Despite the arraignments of persons allegedly behind the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Police Commissioner has also stepped down.

Lawrence Cutajar lost public trust over his failure to investigate allegations of money laundering against people in high office as well as his kid-glove treatment of the OPM’s former chief of staff over claims of collusion in the murder. Abela’s instruction that the memorial to Caruana Galizia was not to be touched following the customary vigil was greeted as a welcome bucking of the trend set by his predecessor.

So too can his decision to set up a Cabinet committee on governance be seen as a signal that he means business on changing the law to reflect the Council of Europe’s recommendations, which had been highly critical of the lack of checks and balances on the government’s powers. And by his declaration that Joseph Muscat would face his opposition to any personal push for abortion, Abela appeared to indicate that he is “his own man”.

Well, the jury is still out on that. One can make some allowances for a new prime minister still feeling his way, conscious of the need to perform a delicate balancing act between party expectations and national requirements in the field of governance as well as the environment.

We would urge Abela, though, not to squander the general sentiment in this honeymoon period of “let’s give him a chance”. He has a golden opportunity to leave his mark on the country by embarking soon on the profound reforms that need to be made, setting the tone for this administration and even starting to mould a positive legacy for himself from this very moment.

For this to happen he needs to take courageous decisions in line with his own professed values. To bring about “unity” he needs above all to make sure justice is done.

To ensure “honesty” he needs to restructure national institutions into powerhouses against his government’s potential abuse of power. To bring back “integrity” he must re-introduce the culture of making appointments solely on the basis of competence and moral rectitude.

He must also show restraint when faced with the anticipated demands from unscrupulous businessmen and contractors and steer away from populist actions which placate right-wing sentiments.

To truly come out from under Muscat’s shadow, Abela needs to become the prime minister of change.