As I sit down to write this column, I ask myself what is loyalty? What does it really mean to people and do we have any anymore? Ruta Mave writes.

This is my fifth year of writing an opinion column for the newspaper, I do not and have never ever received any payment for my time and effort and surprisingly it does take a lot of time, angst and continual rewrites to write 800 words.

Money is not a motivator for me so there must be a perverse sense of joy and enlightenment gained from the keyboard to express my own and others’ often pure dismay at how our fellow community and government behave and act on a regular basis. A social comment, warts and all with a touch of humour and humility is what I strive for. 

Sometimes I get it right from the personal feedback I get and sometimes I get it wrong from the legal feedback I get. Either way I cannot be responsible for how everyone reads and responds to my rhetoric. It is true you can’t please everyone all the time and sometimes you can’t please some people not even some of the time.

So, when I get threatened to have my access to write for print cut off, or when I am told to be muzzled or blocked in any way shape or form, I ask myself is it worth it? What will I really lose? In this day and age of social media does it really make a difference where I hold my platform of opinion? In some ways this growing age of IT entrepreneurial opportunities gives everyone the right and ability to send their message out to inboxes in the ethers that can invoke responses far further afield than the local paper.

But here I am writing loyally once again to get it in on time and accurately for the Monday print. I do so not for me so much, I have reports to write and other exciting creative stuff. But because it is a habit and a service I offer, to those I have never met, who buy the paper to read my latest missive because there have been times that they found some solace or entertainment from it. Acknowledging this to myself has been a challenge but I accept it and remain loyal to keep writing.

Loyalty is a dying trait. A coffee loyalty card aims to reward you over time if you go repeatedly to the same place. However, I find people have more than one card for coffee or smoothies or ten percent discount. The loyalty in voucher coupon hoarders oscillates from one to another depending on the special the financial reward or savings. The consideration of the person or service being better does not always feature strong enough to keep them loyal. 

Marriage loyalty - now that is a rare commodity these days. Cheating on one’s partner seems common place like this is how relationships work. Staying loyal and true to your individual needs seems to have grown in leaps and bounds whereas the loyalty to others in your partnership either personal or business, your employees or workmates boss management or the establishment has all taken a dive in points over recent years.

People act like loyalty can be gained in a day instead of the day by day it takes.  They flash it around in memes and speeches. But once it is given away when cross to the other side you will find it is easier to forgive an enemy than it is to forgive a friend. When you are looking for where loyalty lies it is in the things you regret because now you realise they mattered.

Loyalty is staying true to the course and that unwavering decision despite the raging war around is where loyalty is proven. It is here that trust is earned and once discovered it is thought to prove to be, an immovable beast, an unbreakable bond, the most dependable faith in another’s support wisdom or leadership when you are at your darkest.

Trust can take years to build, seconds to break and forever to repair. When trust is earned then respect is given and loyalty will be demonstrated. The betrayal of any one of these three means losing all three sometimes irrevocably.

Faith is different to loyalty. Faith generally refers to a strong belief or trust in something or someone often without requiring proof. Loyalty is built on a commitment with a sense of duty created from proven actions and behaviours.

Faith can exist independent of one’s actions, the sinner goes to church for forgiveness so they can start the week with a clean slate. They do not necessarily act on their belief.

Loyalty requires sacrifice or choices that reflect their commitment.

Response

Cook Islands News publisher John Woods responds to Ruth Mave’s remarks above:

As acting editor during the month of November, I received backlash to Ruth Mave’s column in which she accused former Prime Minister Henry Puna and his chief of staff Ben Ponia of deviously and secretly signing off on purse seine fishing rights to Cook Islands waters behind closed doors. The backlash came as a lawyer’s letter disputing Mave’s allegation and threatening the newspaper with a defamation action unless we withdrew the accusation and apologised, which we did when we established that Mave had no factual evidence to support or vindicate her claim.

Then in another written opinion piece the writer accused a church minister of going behind the backs of parents to baptise their children without parental knowledge or consent. When we checked Mave’s claim and found it could not be proven, I spoke to the writer about the problems she caused the newspaper when she did not check or verify her supposed facts, and said I had considering axing her column permanently.

I reminded Mave her column was introduced to our newspaper without my knowledge or consent by a former editor who had set a dangerous precedent by allowing her unbridled and unfettered freedom to express her opinions and criticism of authorities and newsmakers on a weekly basis.

While this was as an unpaid columnist, the writer has had the freedom and opportunity to discuss topics and issues of her choice and personal interest, a liberty seldom given or afforded a non-professional writer in a daily newspaper. To a limited extent we have appreciated having a regular opinion piece from Ruth Mave as she has debated a wide range of topics and current affairs, providing us with topical and sometimes engaging opinion to entertain and amuse our readers. I consider that to be a privilege for any commentator or writer.

I actually have no objection to Mave openly addressing my threat as I can now confess and explain why I’m dubious about her column, and wouldn’t be too worried if she stopped writing for us, because sometimes her choice of topic is outlandish and too extreme for my liking. On top of that, sometimes her lack of fact checking causes fallout because of the lack of reliability and veracity of her information (which occasionally is pure hearsay and conjecture). Legal challenges such as in the Ben Ponia example can cost us in professional fees to defend ourselves and as in the apology to Ben Ponia can be offensive or embarrassing undermining our relationships with good sources/newsmakers.

As publisher and owner of Cook Islands News I harbour and allow uncensored opinion in the interests of free speech and public discourse/debate which is good for our readers and our business. For now, we remain loyal to the unwritten arrangement allowing Ruth Mave to use our medium to express her opinions, and we invite anyone else who may be interested in doing the same to come forward with contributions in this vein.