Dear Sir, RE: Egbert Faibille Jnr. on Newsfile I wish to respond to remarks made by the above-named on your esteemed program, “NEWSFILE” regarding my book “CHASING THE ELEPHANT INTO THE BUSH” and me personally on Saturday, 12 December, 2009. Amongst other things, Mr. Faibille described me as disloyal, urged me to wean myself off students’ politics and opined that he wanted to do a personality profile on me. Let me begin from the beginning of Mr. Faibille’s unfortunate day on your program. In his effort to cast me in bad light, he revealed that I had been referring to Mr. Ben Ephson some years ago when I complained about a journalist wanting money from me to put my campaign in a good light. That was an unfortunate lie. I was not referring to Mr. Ephson and Mr. Faibille should apologize to him for impugning his reputation needlessly. Mr. Faibille should focus on building his own reputation rather than ruining that of others. A few years ago, it was a Professor at GIMPA. Yesterday, it was Ben Ephson and I. Tomorrow, it will be someone else. Mr. Faibille appears to have a rather narrow and distorted view of loyalty. He accuses me of disloyalty for authoring a book without regards to the contents. Were Obama’s Campaign Chair and McCain’s Running-mate disloyal because they wrote books about the 2008 campaign? In the 2008 campaign, was Mr. Da Rocha disloyal when he urged the NPP publicly to let Mr. Kyerematen go even while party leaders were working to bring him back? Was he disloyal when he said that the party should be prepared to change the Presidential candidate if he insisted on making Hajia his running-mate? At that time, some in the campaign, just like Egbert, wanted the campaign to attack Mr. Da Rocha because they considered his opinions disloyal but I disagreed. Of course they were wrong. Mr. Da Rocha was exhibiting a higher form of loyalty--- to his party and his principles. There are loyalties other than those owed to individuals. Amongst these are loyalties to party, to country, to principles and to one’s faith. When Mr. Faibille turned to accuracy, of all the substantive things in the book, the one he could refer to was the question of whether Nana Akufo-Addo started his law practice in Victor Owusu’s chambers. The book made no such claim. I asked Nana about the supposed PFP/UNC divide in our party and he said that divide was not as significant as some think it is. To buttress his answer, he told me that Danquah had voluntarily relinquished the leadership of the party to Busia and that Victor had no problems with him Nana taking over his chambers. That is what is in the book. It seems Mr. Faibille was so determined to defend the NPP against imaginary attacks by me that he was not even interested in defending the party against the scandalous “bonking charges” article published by the “Chronicle” in violation of the basic tenets of journalism that had upset others and me. As to his advice to me to wean myself off students’ politics, I have done so long ago. However, unlike Mr. Faibille, I did not forget the good things I learnt from student politics—like integrity, speaking one’s mind, standing up for one’s principles and “commitment without inducement”. These are eternal values and they have served me well and would have served Mr. Faibille well too. Unfortunately, in the eagerness to embrace national politics, one can become too tolerant of bad habits like “moneycracy” and “hero-worshipping”. If his accusations that I am still enamored of students’ politics are based on these, I plead guilty happily. Actually, I have moved beyond the old ways of doing politics to embrace international and modern standards. That is why I wrote “CHASING THE ELEPHANT INTO THE BUSH”. When we win in 2012, it will be recalled as the clarion-call that rallied us. If we lose, it will stand as an eternal reminder of how we could have won. On Mr. Faibille’s desire to perform a personality test/profile on me, my humble advice is that he should stick to law and journalism---- he is doing enough harm there as it is. Listening to Mr. Failbille as he screamed, I was worried about his blood pressure and his health. He needs to calm down a little. Finally, I wish to respectfully urge that your esteemed Station refrain from putting on air panelists like Mr. Faibille, who are known more for making noise than for making sense. They are harming the reputation of your station. Convey to Mr. Faibille and all your other panelists, including my friend Malik Kweku Baako, my best wishes for the holidays and my prayers that they all have a great 2010. Sincerely, Arthur Kennedy Email: arkoke@aol.com