In Defence of Malawi's President

In politics, victory may be desirable, but one of the tragedies of our modern understanding of history is the belief that losers are not worth remembering. But some losers are better teachers than most winners. A case in point is Adlai Ewing Stevenson II, who lost two consecutive presidential elections in his nation's history, but left a repository of wisdom worthy of our generation's attention. It was he who said "a free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular," but this is a truth long forgotten, and nowhere is it more timely to heed this admonition than in my homeland of Malawi.

My president, His Excellency Bingu Wa Mutharika, is the most unpopular man in the country, and I have argued elsewhere that his lack of popularity is deserved. However, what he doesn't deserve are the sinister and ill-advised calls for a speedy and sudden end to his aging life that have become a common and troubling feature of much loose talk and wishful thinking among those whose quarrel with the Head of State is more thuggish than patriotic. And it is at times like this that such voices as Stevenson's cry out from the wilderness of history to warn us against this mood, not just for the sake of the man who is thus unpopular, but also for the sake of sparing his family and our country from a thousand unenviable perils. A president's death is not a thing to trifle with.

So whatever your quarrel is with your president, however disagreeable you find his policies, to whatever extent you feel aggrieved by his leadership, and however incompetent you find his entourage, see to it that you articulate your sentiments and present your argument with civility and respect, and do so with the passion of someone whose love of country is greater than your resentment of its president. And dare to go the second mile by letting that same love of country give you the moral fortitude to defend the life of your president against those who wish him harm, even if you can't defend his policies. And if you find this hard to do, remember that it is only hard because it is the right thing to do.

And here, another truth from the lips of Adlai Ewing Stevenson II comes to our aid by reminding us that we should not expect that living by better principles than this sadist mood will be easy, because as he put it, "it is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them". But in the midst of this hardship there is encouragement and hope, especially if you are a Christian, that by wishing your president well and spending yourself in prayer for him, you will secure yourself a place in the footsteps of such giants of the faith as Daniel, who not only fought for his principles by denouncing King Nebuchadnezzar's decrees as "harsh", but also lived up to those principles by always greeting his king with the words, "O king, live forever!"