If you are to measure someone’s loyalty, do it during the most difficult circumstances and not when things are rosy.
Ladies and gentlemen, even Ben Phiri’s detractors agree that the guy remained loyal to President Mutharika at a time when Mutharika’s political future looked dim.
I remember at some point during the Joyce Banda reign at Civo Stadium in Lilongwe when Mutharika was crowning champions of a women’s sports trophy he sponsored, people literally shunned him. There were a handful of individuals and mostly were party women who were brought in a lorry to accompany him.
During this occasion and in many more trying occasions, it was one Ben Phiri who did whatever you can imagine ranging from giving Mutharika either real or false hopes that Malawi still needed him for the Presidency in 2014.
Ladies and gentlemen, this to me is the true definition of loyalty.
But wait a minute, Ben Phiri’s detractor’s claim that he was paid to do the job and thus why he was in the spotlight.
Fine, was the DPP former Secretary General Wakuda Kamanga not on the party’s pay roll? Did he not ditch DPP for greener pastures in Peoples Party?
So when we say Ben Phiri was loyal to President Mutharika; we say it out of facts and not out of hallucinations.
I also saw another true case of loyalty from University Students up north there during the build up to the 2014 elections. When it was unfashionable to be associated with DPP and Peter Mutharika’s 2014 presidential bid especially up north there; in fact when the majority in this country seemed to agree that Peter Mutharika should not be President in 2014 for its not dynasty (Si Ufumu kuti Ana Abele Limodzi Akhale Onse Ma President)—one brave student—name forgotten—speaking as Chairperson of that vibrant university wing of the DPP up north there used to give insightful interviews on state controlled broadcaster MBC, endorsing the then not so popular Professor Peter Mutharika for the country’s top most job.
Speaking with passion, the arguments he was making, backing his then embattled leader Peter Mutharika, were forceful.
I heard later that this student’s open support for the DPP and Mutharika almost landed him in trouble at the university but still, his love for the party was unwavering.
If you ask me, this is a typical case of true loyalty from unsung heroes of the mighty DPP.
A brief third case is that of one Gerald Viola. The radio man now turned state house press officer. The guy passionately supported Mutharika’s bid on Galaxy FM. This is another case of undisputed Loyalty.
There are so many cases—known or unknown— where one can easily see loyalty from true DPP members.
In all these cases, you see individuals who openly and directly loved DPP and Peter Mutharika. They made up their minds to either swim with Mutharika and the party or to sink with him because it was clear that his loss would have also meant disaster for them.
On the other hand, if you analyze those who are causing havoc today, you will end up noticing that they lack or lacked any grain of loyalty when things turned topsy-turvy in the DPP family. They showed not only Mutharika or DPP but also the entire nation that there is no loyalty in their DNA’s.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Someone who sneaked out of a country immediately after his boss was pronounced dead can’t pass the Loyalty test.
Someone who said his boss was “a dead man walking” immediately after hearing of his boss’s demise can’t surely pass the Loyalty test.
Now, no amount of spin can move this leader from placing total trust on people with proven record of being untrustworthy when a tornado strikes.
Are we today not hearing that someone was demanding a key position of Chief Secretary to government and the leader couldn’t trust him with such a key position?
Now I hear an argument from some quarters that these DPP proven traitors are the best political strategists Malawi has ever had and that they supported DPP to win the election and therefore they deserve to be rewarded. Are you sure?
Only unreasonable people can take them serious for these are undeniably proven traitors. They might have been accepted to work with the party during the campaign period and it does not surprise me that they were used and dumped as a condom. This is because they are not as smart as they think they are. Remember, the rule of thumb almost everywhere is to work with loyalists and not traitors’ and do we not have a local adage which says that once beaten twice shy?
Let me conclude by saying that Ben Phiri is going no-where. Did you not hear state house violently shaking when Phiri gave that interview that he has resigned? Do you know the reason why state house panicked; vehemently refusing that Ben Phiri had resigned?
It’s because Loyalty anywhere is respected and traitors overlooked.
These confusionists will bark until they are tired and Mutharika won’t allow Ben to go because Mutharika respects loyalty but at the same time, let we, Malawians doff our hats to Mutharika for he knows how best to treat semi-traitors and undoubted traitors.