Bwana Malawian President, some silence please!

THE TWISTER

BY BRIAN LIGOMEKA

Yesterday morning, my wife told me to drop my little kid christened Bright at his kindergarten. Fifteen minutes, later, my son and I jumped out of the car and walked hand in hand past the gates of the nursery school where he is receiving his pre-school education.

“Tionana masana ano, [We will meet in the afternoon]” I told him.

“Dad, it’s either you speak to me in English or just walk out in silence,” he told me.

“Here at school it is either you speak English or keep quiet,” I never responded to him as I just turned back and walked out of their small campus and walked towards my car.

The advice from the two-year old Bright kept on ringing in my mind: “Here at school it is either you speak English or keep quiet.”   

The little boy’s caution that I should either speak a language that is acceptable at the institution or shut up moved me from my comfort zone in terms of what I have been believing all along.

I am among those who hold the ancient view that wisdom comes with age. With what my son said convinced me that most of our kids who are able to use laptops, mobiles phones, watch TVs and have access to all forms of new media boast of abundant wisdom beyond their years.

Their wisdom often goes beyond intelligence associated with their age and trying to argue with them is a mistake as you can easily find yourself arguing on the wrong side of pertinent issues. Yesterday, I just turned back without a word accepting the fact that sometimes it is better to keep quiet than behave as if you are a victim of verbal diarrhoea.

I think as a country, we are facing some problems because some people who are in power fail to take advice from those they view as little people.

Having been told by my little son that I should learn to keep quiet if I am not sure the sort of acceptable language that is spoken at their kindergarten, in the same vein I plead with President Bingu wa Mutharika to keep quiet if he is not sure the sort of language he should be using when dealing with lecturers from the national university.

I believe if Mutharika, who is both university Chancellor and Police Commander in Chief, was quiet on the academic freedom dispute, this institution of high learning would not have been closed indefinitely awaiting conclusion of legal battles.

Even during his recent trip to Mzuzu, instead of making derogatory outbursts calling his critics “stupid Europeans who listen to stupid opposition politicians,” the president would have scored free points by refraining from commenting on criticisms from little tiankhwezule.  

 I know some Public Relations experts believe that during controversies, silence in not a good strategy because when an individual or an institution says “no comment” or the media reports that that an official or the organisation “declined comment”, the court of public opinion always assumes that either the official or the organisation is hiding something or that they are in the wrong, but such assumptions are not always applicable to every feud.

Sometimes we should bear in mind that it is vital to say less than necessary.

One author Robert Greene once said: “When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control.  Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.  Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less.  The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.”