A Tale of two Presidents – ‘Pepe’ and ‘Soldier Boy’

Aug 16, 2015 Countryman, Features / Columnists

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By Dennis Nichols
The late iconic American football coach, Vince Lombardi, famously said, ‘Leaders aren’t born; they are made; and they are made just like anything else, through hard work.’ Of our current president, David Granger, it could be said that he is in the process of ‘being made’ into the leader of this nation, and the reality of the hard work he faces is achingly sinking in.
Hard work yes, but an effective leader also has to be, in my opinion, a maverick – a stubbornly independent thinker and doer who, according to American activist and financier Ziad Abdelnour, writes his own rulebook, and ‘thinks laterally to overcome problems considered to be irresolvable’.
Writer Michael Paterniti takes the definition of maverick leader even more extreme. ‘Someone who skirts the edge of sanity’ he says, whose ingenuity and courage (later) generations grow to envy, and on whose shoulders ‘a country rises’. Sounds a bit like the ex-president of another South American country – a man named José ‘Pepe’ Mujica, aka the pauper president, or, in my words, the peasant president.
Apart from presidential status, David ‘Soldier Boy’ Granger and José Mujica, the former Uruguayan leader, seem to have little in common, but that may be due in part to the fact that a few months ago they were at opposite ends of tenure. Mujica had just stepped down from the presidency while Granger was starting his ascendency. But there are a couple of traits they seem to share, less of political significance and more of human interest, which is what I like to write about. Mujica’s colourful life is great fodder for a good story.

José Alberto ‘Pepe’ Mujica was born into poverty to European immigrant parents. He worked in a bakery and sold flowers after his father, an unsuccessful businessman, died when he was eight. He was influenced in his teens by Uruguay’s daring, left-wing politicos who employed ‘Robin Hood’ tactics to help poor villagers – the remnants of a patrimony left by former socialist president, Jose Batlle.
According to American journalist Eve Fairbanks, who spent time with him in Uruguay last February, Pepe grew up embracing the country’s egalitarian legacy under which big landowners were taxed and trade unions championed. Health care was a universal right, and university education was free.
Mujica fought with the violent anti-capitalist guerilla group, the Tupamaros, against a repressive regime in the seventies, was shot six times by the police, and spent 13 years in jail, which he says simply strengthened his resolve to fight for what he believed, even after periods of solitary confinement following two prison breakouts.
(Interesting note: Late American rapper, Tupac Amaru Shakur, and the Tupamaros were both named after the 18th century Peruvian revolutionary Tupac Amaru, who led an indigenous uprising against Spanish rule)
Our former president Bharrat Jagdeo was given the title ‘Champion of the Earth’. Mujica could have been labeled ‘Champion of the Earthy and the Underprivileged’, and ‘Advocate for Liberalism’. He eschewed presidential trimmings, rarely wore suit and tie, and drove an aging blue Volkswagen Beetle.
As president from 2010 to 2015, he continued to live in his ramshackle, one-bedroom farmhouse, outside the capital, Montevideo, where he cultivates chrysanthemums with his wife Lucia (they have no children) and his three-legged dog, Manuela. He proclaims himself an atheist, and as president, he legalized abortion, gay marriage, and marijuana.
But probably his main claim to maverick fame is that he donated about 90 per cent of his president’s salary to charities that help poor people, including women, (especially single mothers) children, and small businesses. When asked about this he is quoted as saying, “I have a way of life that I don’t change just because I am president. I earn more than I need, even if it’s not enough for others. For me it’s no sacrifice; it’s a duty!”
Although Mujica has passed some of the most progressive legislation on earth, left the Uruguayan economy in a stable position, and had an approval rating of 65 per cent on leaving office, some feel he largely failed in his efforts to curb now-rampant consumerism and to lessen social inequality. But his fascinating personality more than makes up for any political and economic shortcomings, and he is still regarded by many internationally as a hero and an example of how a political leader should lead.
President Granger isn’t José Mujica, and may have no inclination to emulate his personality, but there seem to be a few intriguing similarities. Like Mujica, Granger appears to possess a maverick streak and simplicity of expression despite what some people regard as his aloofness. His humility, for example, seems genuine, and like the ex-president of Uruguay, he appears to be more concerned with this country’s glaring social inequalities than with presidential trappings.
I can find no reference to, or evidence of, the extent of Mujica’s education, and doubt he had time for prolonged formal schooling. Granger on the other hand attended Guyana’s most elite high school, is university-trained, and is a historian and published author. Both however have gleaned wide experience-based knowledge from their respective military and non-military pasts, Mujica as a guerilla fighter/activist, and Granger as a soldier and an academic.
Another similarity is that President Granger appears to be content with his modest, bungalow-type house (at least until the advent of the last two floods) in a part of Georgetown not noted for its opulence. And he has already had fun poked at him for the way he dresses, a la Mujica, although the latter’s appearance is more roughhewn. Both men (and this is strictly my observation) exude in their own way, an air of assuredness about their ability to lead, and lead well, in spite of their lack of presidential conspicuousness.
Again, unlike Mr. Mujica, Mr. Granger may not be inclined to view the legalization of marijuana and same-sex marriage from the same pragmatic and permissive viewpoint as the former. I’m pretty certain he is not an atheist, and I would be happily astounded if he considered giving even half his presidential salary to charity; after all, this is Guyana we’re talking about. But what I would like Mr. Granger to do is reflect on these words spoken by the ex-Uruguayan leader, on being a president. It should be easy for him to relate to.
Mujica said, “A president is a high-level official who is elected to carry out a function. He is not a king; not a god. He is not the witch doctor of a tribe who knows everything. He is a civil servant. I think the ideal way of living is to live like the vast majority of people whom we attempt to serve and represent.”
The import of these words should be self-evident to the leaders in a country like ours; if not they should be framed and hung on the wall of every government minister and high official in Guyana. And if at the end of his incumbency, David Granger can look at José Mujica’s quote and not flinch, he would have done this country and himself well.

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