National leaders are scarce

Feb 09, 2014 Editorial

Many people aspire to be leaders but few can actually cope with the demands of leadership. Perhaps the best example of a leader is a parent and there is no manual for parenting. Indeed, people make suggestions but when one stops to think that every child is different, one can imagine the different suggestions that would be proffered.
It has not been easy going for many because of existing economic conditions. The average parent tries to ensure that children are afforded three meals per day. Today for one, the average parent is a single woman and this number is increasing daily.
Fathers seem to have abandoned their role as the prime parent in the home and the consequences are severe. There was a time when every boy saw his father as a role model who could beat anyone in the world. This perception caused many a young man to walk the proverbial straight and narrow. Fewer went the wrong way and society was so much better off.
These young men went on to become leaders in their communities because they understood many things, not least among them the rule of law and discipline. These were the people to whom people looked and they did not disappoint.
These days, in what people call a modern society, mothers are left to bring up their children alone. This is so widespread that children have been known to express shock when they visited a friend’s home and found both parents there. One even asked, “Does he sleep here?”
The absence of the male from a home is what carries over into the wider society. It manifests itself in so many ways, the worst of which is domestic violence. Men abuse women because some were slapped by their mothers who had no one around to help her maintain discipline. But if she didn’t slap then there was still a negative fallout.
Many young men simply became delinquents because they know that there is no one to muscle them along the way. We now see very young boys as criminals. These are our gunmen because they were easily indoctrinated and fashioned by people they thought they wanted to be.
Boys just into their teens are made to feel as adults and masculine by having a pistol thrust into their pants waist.
Now we take a look at what passes for leadership today. Many of the male leaders seem unable to cope with the demands and for good reason. There is no manual and the society offers little help. There is no leader who has not been approached for one favour. To deny the favour would be to risk alienation and to grant it is to open the floodgates because the beneficiary invariable tells a friend who in turn may seek a favour.
Then we have those who are afraid to take decisions with the result that allegations of corruption are swirling with no end in sight. Even when evidence of corruption was presented the leaders seemed afraid to act. There may have been political considerations. But then again, there may simply have been the fear to act.
As things are, small countries like Guyana where everyone knows everyone, leaders tend to be hesitant. Those who in the past have tried to be firm and to perform as any national leader were seen as dictators. Forbes Burnham was one. He saw how laid back the people were and he tried to motivate them but many did not take kindly to his approach.
He spared not even those who professed to be his friends. For their act of corruption he jailed them. He fashioned programmes that were intended to develop and he was rigid in his determination that the people execute those programmes. Today, nearly three decades after his death people still talk about him in wishful tones.
There are a few who could lead but then again, they may wish to avoid the fall out. In the small Caribbean islands unless the correct balance between leader and buddy is found the result could be a lost election.

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