Opinion: When politicians live like celebrities…
In the New Year, 2014, I am sure many people will be seeking, through fair and sometimes foul means, to occupy leadership positions in various fields of endeavour, especially politics where some major parties will be going to the polls to elect officers.
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It is important that we take time to learn and really understand what leadership is all about so that we do not BLINDLY support people to win elections only for them to lead us, the masses, astray while they amass massive wealth for themselves and families and live like celebrities.
The kind of leadership that we should all promote is one in which the leaders are prepared to sacrifice their personal comfort and general gratification to a large extent for the greater good of the people. And while they lead, the people must also be careful not to literally worship them to a point of turning them into cult figures.
I recommend to all leaders a story written by Sunny Bindra, a leadership coach, and posted on Sunword.com on September 9, 2012, under the title: ‘Leadership cults retard national development.’
The story is about a selfless leader, Madam Micheline Calmy-Rey, a former foreign minister and President of Switzerland, whose country is widely respected for its wealth and peace; values that were obviously engendered by the genuine and altruistic nature of its leaders.
The lessons therein are so rich that Ghana will see a lot of development in the coming years if we all endeavour to go by the invaluable leadership education that Madam Calmy-Rey is reported in the article to have given to the world.
According to Bindra, a woman in her early 60s arrived at Zurich airport (in Switzerland) after a long international flight and got onto a train headed for Bern, the Swiss capital. Because the train was crowded, the older woman occupied a seat near the door.
When the ticket controller came in, he pointed out politely to the lady that her seat was reserved for the physically challenged and that she ought to vacate it. The lady complied. Passengers witnessing the episode didn’t offer her their seats either and she travelled standing all the way to Bern.
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That elderly woman who stood in the train from Zurich to Bern was Micheline Calmy-Rey, foreign minister and former President of Switzerland.
Can you actually imagine this? That a former president gets on a train, and is not permitted to remain on a seat reserved for the disabled, just like any other citizen? Not surprisingly, Madam Calmy-Rey was subsequently re-elected President.
In Ghana, the masses queue under the roasting sun to vote for politicians, expecting that they will use their ideas, experiences, etc., to positively direct the affairs of the state to make life better for the people. Many of them rather abuse the trust that the people repose in them and literally live like kings and queens and treat the masses as their subjects.
At functions where young children and elderly people sit under the scorching sun, you will see politicians addressing the people, with police officers holding umbrellas over their heads to shield them from the scorching sun.
I was recently at a programme where the driver of a politician’s vehicle kept the engine running throughout the period that the event lasted. I asked him why he was wasting the fuel in the car and his response was that the weather was hot so he wanted the big man to cool down immediately he entered the car after the function, which was held outdoors on a very hot sunny day.
We use our tax money to buy expensive vehicles for politicians and other public officials and when they are stepping in or out of the cars, we have to open and close the doors for them. Kings and queens, indeed!
If our leaders decide to get off their high horses and come down to the level of the people that they have been elected to serve, they would have nothing to fear with regard to their personal safety.
After all, in countries like Sweden and Denmark where the leaders concentrate on developing the social welfare, educational and all the other systems that make life worth living, the politicians mingle freely with the satisfied and happy masses because they have nothing to be afraid of. Some politicians in those countries even ride bicycles or take public transport to work!
We, the ordinary people, should stop making cult figures out of our leaders, especially the politicians, and begin to view them with objective lenses instead of literally worshipping them for ethnic and other parochial reasons.
With that, we can confidently vote out those who have “NO MERCY FOR THE CRIPPLE!”
Catch me here: wasiedus@gmail.com / Follow me on twitter @WillieAsiedu.