I enjoyed reading your entry entitled “Malawi needs own David”, particularly the perspective from which it is presented.
However, I would like to offer a slightly different perspective from the same illustration on the matter.
From my experience of God’s methods of choosing leaders, Malawi is yet to meet a David.
I strongly believe, from the story of David, that the “Davids” – whether political or not – are always hidden.
Your article seems to emphasise the qualities of a leader like David, but it does not point out the vital process of such leadership development.
David was in the bush, being trained by God. He was in obscurity, and no one knew this except himself and God. The only time we see the qualities of servant leadership in David is particularly when he is bold enough to slay the giant, Goliath.
Here David shows us passion for his country and people as he risks his life for Israel.
This is a teenage boy, but his passion for Israel and his God is so powerful that with just a stone, he brings down for Israel what seemed as ‘impossible’.
The Davids are, and will always, be hidden when in the making.
The principles of effective leadership development remain the same. It is developed in obscurity where a leader develops boldness to face any type of Goliath, learns to fight the lion with bare hands and learns what it is to lead, and eventually protect at all costs the welfare of that which has been trusted to them.
Malawi, therefore, I agree, needs a David.
However, I believe that such a David is currently not on the political, religious or whatever scene; but somewhere in the bush or in obscurity.
Therefore, let us not blame, or worse, search for a David within a Saul. We are to patiently wait for Saul’s era to come to an end while preparing for the David which Malawi’s Goliath was designed for.
After all, occupancy is not possession. We will soon, as a nation, be introduced to a new generation of Davids and Mandelas who will not compromise their beliefs and principles for anything, but rather will be willing to sacrifice everything they have for the freedom of the country they love and its people.
I applaud the author for the audacity to discuss these issues with Malawi citizens. This is the beginning of Davids emerging in the media industry. We greatly need it!
Kind regards
Memory Divine Chimchere
Thank you very much Memory for your feedback that offers a ‘slightly’ new vantage point.
It is quite encouraging to note that you agree on almost anything suggested in Weekly Agenda’s last entry.
Evidently, Malawi has been so unlucky particularly in former presidents Bakili Muluzi, Bingu wa Mutharika and Joyce Banda, and the incumbent President Peter Mutharika as to court unparallelled mediocrity that would hardly push the country forward.
Indeed, “occupancy is not possession” and the nation can wait for that right time some divine intervention will bring it the much-needed Moses.
But the Moses perhaps would only come if the country’s collective conscience underwent a transplant and majority based their choice of a political leader on right attributes rather than, as earlier said, on just getting to know their name or some nepotistic or regional affiliations.
Otherwise, majority will die while awaiting the country’s Moses.
Malawi is, for example, in a fiscal hitch—tantamount to treason—that is threatening the existence of the country.
But elsewhere chief adviser to the President on economic affairs Collins Magalasi and fellow ‘schemers’ are sweating profusely to sway the public into believing that the President needs to use a chartered plane in his foreign trips or the country should buy a presidential jet. n
