BALEDROKADROKA - A Study of National Leadership
16-Sep-2008
Pillar of 3 of the Draft Charter proclaims Ensuring Effective, Enlightened, And Accountable Leadership as the key to rebuilding Fiji and the way forward has four bullet points:
* Enact a Code of Conduct for aspiring leaders at all levels;
* Develop a Leadership Model and vision;
* Enhance Training and development of public leaders; and
* Increase public awareness of leadership principles.
In looking at these points, I am tending to concede towards a fellow female critique of the draft where she stated in her opinion feature in another local daily 10/9, “It is clear from their determination to spell out all these policies, that the underlying belief within the NCBBF or TASS is that political parties in Fiji were largely ignorant of these Pillar “imperatives”. Therefore not to insult but for the sake of public debate I draw from my own non political leadership experience’s and strategic scholarship without being prescriptive.
At the outset leadership is as varied and as abstact a subject there is. There can be no one prescribed scientific or sociological model for Fiji’s leaders or for any other nation for that matter.
Therefore we need to develop our own based on first principles. This I posit is the study of great world leaders and their nations struggle for democracy. In particular what is applicable from their human history, to our present situation and our future aspirations as a nation.
Hence an accepted methodology is by case studies of leaders, in particular, of third world countries who led their nations to triumph through democracy and the will of the people.
This approach covers all the four bullet points as highlighted with actual political, social and economical problems faced, policies and decisions made and successful legacies to prove.
As such I have chosen four case studies of great leaders of third world nations whose greatness is a testament to the living legacy of the birth, growth and shining light of democracy. Why these leaders? These leaders epitomise the qualities that all who aspire to national leadership in a third world developing democratic system should try to emulate:
More so all these icons of democracy were leaders of their developing nations that have developed or are on the way to being a fully developed nation in the next half century.
These persons who were pillars of democracy are: Nelson Mandela of South Africa - icon of race relations, Mahatma Gandhi of India - icon of democratic peaceful resistance, Lee Kwan Yeu of Singapore - icon of social and economic growth and Golda Meir of Israel - icon of women political leadership. All of them are founding fathers/mothers of their new states and are internationally renowned as nation builders.
An educational programme as part of a mandatory school cariculum from as young as class one to university level to more strategic leadership courses can be nationally devised on these role models lives and the ethics and principles they espoused with the emphasis always on DEMOCRACY.
A summary of their achievements is done on a very cursory fashion beginning with Golda Meir. One of her most famous quotes “[The Arabs] will stop fighting us when they love their children more than they hate [Jews].” resonates for us all today. Her crowning glory was her leadership as Prime Minister during Israel’s Yom Kippur war, which almost saw the destruction of the Jewish democratic state in October of 1973. She was re-elected in December of 1973 but she resigned in April of 1974 bowing to what she felt was the “will of the people”.
She was a founding mother of the Jewish democratic state of Israel thus on May 10, 1948, 4 days before the official establishment of the state, Meir travelled to Amman disguised as an Arab woman for a secret meeting with King Abdullah of Transjordan at which she urged him not to join the other Arab countries in attacking the Jews. Abdullah asked her not to hurry to proclaim a state. Golda, known for her acerbic wit, replied: “We’ve been waiting for 2000 years. Is that hurrying?”
Golda Meir’s legacy in the birth of Israel will be remembered for all posterity as the strong-willed, straight-talking, gray-bunned grandmother of the Jewish people.
* To be continued...
The views expressed are those of the author and not the Fiji Daily Post
Jone R Baledrokadroka |
