Actions not words

Mar 07, 2010 Editorial

With General Elections just about a year away, and the incumbent President declaring rather firmly (and increasingly testily) that he has no desire to seek a third term, we seem to have entered our Presidential “silly season”. That season involves becoming consummated about who will be the individual that will succeed him.
Most of the interest seems to be focused on which person might be the candidate for the PPP – which says quite a lot about the nature of our politics.
The question of the suitability of the various candidates for the job seems to pop up automatically but very few have any fixed criteria as what qualities might make any one person more qualified than the others. It used to be claimed that we practiced “doctor” politics. That is, we insisted that our leaders be individuals that had a background of academic achievement.
One supposes that this was a legacy from our colonial days when leaders were supposed to be formed on the “playing fields of Eton and Harrow” – if not the hallowed halls of Oxford and Cambridge. Those days are long gone but there appears to still be some nostalgia for the candidate having some “qualifications” – ironically more from the candidates than from the ordinary folks.
There is the phenomenon of quite aged gentlemen (and the fairer sex seem to be noticeably absent from the Presidential hustings – that says something additional about the nature of our politics) hitting the classrooms in evident preparation for higher office. With the appearance on the local stage of an MBA programme by some Trinidad outfit, maybe we might see an upsurge in “leaders in training”.
The gentlemen seemed to miss the point of exactly what was taught on the fields of Eton and Harrow. It certainly was not accountancy, as some budding leaders seem to assume.
The second irony is that there has not been any study or record that increased time in the classroom, beyond the normal time to imbibe the three Rs, creates any better leadership material.
A strong case in point is the incumbent Prime Minister of Britain, Gordon Brown, who is the first PhD to hold the position. His performance on the job has not been exactly stellar and has hardly eclipsed any of his supposedly less educated predecessors.
The argument may be made that in the globalised world we find ourselves struggling to keep our head above water, there has been a proliferation of arcane matters with which a leader – even that of a poor third world country – ought to be au fait.
One supposes that the financial derivatives that brought the developed world practically on its knees, for instance, might fall into this category. But then one could, with all confidence, declare that not a single leader in the world has more than passing familiarity with these concoctions – and one could include most of the “masters of the universe” from Wall Street in this grouping.
But the world continues to revolve. The point is that in the modern, complex world, there are experts in every field that the leader can hire. All he has to possess is the basic common sense to understand that nothing can be created from nothing. And if an advisor ever suggests otherwise, he should know that something is awry.
From our own history we should be very skeptical of any automatic linkage of leadership competence and “academic” accomplishments. Look where it has landed our country. The other downside of the focus on “intellectuals” – very broadly defined, of course for Guyana – is the arrogance that seems to accompany the breed. There is the facile assumption that all problems can be resolved through simply “understanding” them at the level of ideas.
The further requirement that these ideas must be implemented through mundane, quotidian activity on the ground to actually transform the situation, is oft overlooked.
So as we examine the teeth of the horses in the upcoming Presidential Sweepstakes, we suggest that greater attention should be paid to actions and not words of those who would lead our country. Especially if the words were only scribbled on a piece of paper.

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