Enough politicking... More leadership needed

During my professional career from which I am now retired, I was once called to work as an advisor to a Minister and placed in charge of a specific project. Closer to an election, I was requested to carry out a task which I believed served his personal political objectives, completely outside the purview of what I was assigned to do. I therefore refused to comply and said “Sir, you are now acting like a politician and not as a leader”. The Minister quipped back with “Now look... Renton, you know that I have to get re-elected first, before I can become a leader”. I still stayed my refusal and did not carry out the task. But I also rested my case at that point, in pushing my argument any further with him.

Can be changed

This was only one of many instances where I have had to disagree with political bosses who had signed my letters of appointment. It was always on the basis of upholding principles that I held dear to my heart like meritocracy, fair play and good of the many, as against gains by a few. Most of my colleagues thought that I was out of sync with the system and did not know how to get along with politicians. To get things done, one needed to find an acceptable level of tolerance of what was going on, they said.

Doing his bit in his own small way. AFP

I then held and still hold on to the position that this must change. I also believe that we have what it takes to change it. A preamble of that change we saw in the management of the war on terrorism. What it will now take is non-self-serving leadership with a benevolent outlook to governance, a strong mandate from the people for changing the bad elements within the system and a critical mass of right thinking people with influence on the political leadership’s decision making process with the courage and conviction to seek such change, supporting the leadership to actively pursue it. It will in my mind certainly not happen, if we go on the basis of ‘ceteris paribus’ or the thinking that “It is the way it is, and will always be that way”. More importantly, there is so much ‘looking in the mirror’ that we need to do ourselves to ‘make our own talk, walk’. Anything short of this will for sure, lead us to more uncertainty and perhaps, even to a future full of chaos.

Leadership positions

I have heard more than once, statements of the President, such as; “For me, my country comes before everything else, it is my first, second and third priority”, “I am not the owner of this country, only its caretaker”, “I am not a king, but only your servant”, “We now need to build a nation where fair play and justice will reign” and “The challenge before this nation now is to seek true unity and to give it meaning we need, solid and equitable social and economic development”. Another significant statement I have heard during the current election campaign is “we must get away from politics driven by revenge and create a new political culture in this country”.

Ingrained faults

Despite the high ideals expressed, we see violations of law and order by some politicians that damage the image of the leader, whom they seemingly support.

Then there is the question as to why the leadership is not acting assertively to put an end to such acts and ensure that the Rule of Law prevails over all else.

Could it be the ingrained faults in the political system we have in place? I remember the days when late President JR, also the architect of this current system, called for and held signed letters of resignation from all elected members of Parliament on his government to ensure that he had their loyalty in tact.

I remember the days only a few decades ago, when public servants were operating without any undue pressure from what is now, inappropriately termed the ‘political authority’. Authority then rested on the people who were paid to serve the public, operating under the hawk-eyed supervision of a public services commission.

The job of the politician was to make policy and statues and allow others to implement them without fear or favour.

I also remember a statement of a not so significant politician during the recent war era.

Responding in lighter vein to an inquiry as to why we did not see much of him in public as before, he said “My security has advised me not to be exposed, not for the fear of coming under an LTTE attack, but because I may need to guard myself from the actions of my colleague whose name appears after mine on the proportional representation list”. What he was referring to is a systemic threat that a faulty electoral process had brought in, setting one against the other, even though they were in the same team.

Strong focus

There is no doubt that what we achieved as an end of LTTE terrorism, was a well-managed team effort of a leader, who maintained a strong focus on a singular objective, without wavering under pressure. In the past, we often assigned the success of nation-builders such as Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and Mahathir Mohamed of Malaysia to their ability to take on singular objective driven tasks and maintaining strong focus in achieving them while rallying their people around them.

Similarly, I like to believe that the deeds and statements made by our President to be those of a leader and not of one, who seeks petty political gain.

I am also yet to see the President, shoot any below the belt punches at his opponents or make negative or revengeful statements during this campaign of his for a second and final term in office. His focus thus far has been on the positives and not on any negative. Thus, I would like to believe that he has what it takes, to be that leader of this nation, to see us through to a new future in this post-war era.

All is not well

But then, we all are witness to the fact that all is not well in our midst. We see waste of resources to support a larger than ‘necessary’ structure of governance. We see misleading data presented as indicators of the performance of the economy by our bureaucrats, sometimes even echoing them through speeches of the President. We are witness to how some politicians and their henchmen take the law into their own hands to carry out high-handed acts and the spoken and ‘unspoken’ instances of bribery and corruption at various levels of our society.

Looking in the mirror

Then there are the likes of us, who belong to the civil society that form this body socio-polity. I remember the case of a prominent business person who once approached me with a complaint that a politician had sought Rs. 20 million rupees as a consideration in return for the allocation of a parcel of land. On my insisting that he puts this down in writing, he backed-out but said “had he asked for a reasonable amount like two million rupees, I would have agreed to sort it out”.

These are the likes of people among our elite, who hold the position that the likes of me, do not have the ability to operate within this system. These are also the likes of people, who at cocktail circuits go on complaining about bribery and corruption and point fingers at everyone else but at themselves.

The position I hold on bribery and corruption, is that ‘without a giver, there can not be a taker and the giver is guiltier than the one that takes’. I also hold the elitist ‘old school network’ based considerations and funding the lobbying of thought processes for business gain as also being in the league of bribery and corruption.

Let not the rot spread

It is true that the rot has spread everywhere within our body society like a bad cancer. What we need is to not let it spread further and deeper.

We need to be able to sieve away the empty promises from solid actions of our leaders. We need to understand the causes and the effects at play in our body politics. We need to do away the belief we have, that what is wrong with this system can not be changed.

We need to have hope of a better tomorrow for our Motherland. We need to strengthen the hand of persons with proven ability to make that happen.

Given the prevalent system, I believe that seeking such change and leadership initiatives will come easier on a second term of a President, than during the first.

I want to hope and do my bit in my own small way, to see that my belief will prevail.