Admitting to mistakes

Jul 24, 2019 Editorial

According to the Times of India (June 24), there was this extraordinary admission– Leadership admission of a 400-billion-dollar mistake. Which leader, owns up to something of that magnitude? Bill Gates of Microsoft legend did.
“You know, in the software world, in particular for platforms, there are winner-take-all markets. So the greatest mistake ever is whatever mismanagement is engaged in, that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is, [meaning] Android is the standard non-Apple operating phone form platform. That was a natural thing for Microsoft to win.”
In other words, a strike for six, a home run, an almost automatic fit for Microsoft.
Mistake and mismanagement admission from a legend, the third richest man around didn’t have to, not one so successful, so highly regarded, almost godlike to many. Yet he did. All Guyanese should ask of themselves how many major mistakes have been made by political leaders long not held accountable. And further, how much that has cost this society in terms of: a) the visions concretized; b) the policies introduced and implemented; c) the economic and social consequences of such mistaken or clearly misguided policies; and d) how much did such set this country back.
First, nobody on the local front is admitting to anything; not small, not large; neither leaders nor losers. Nobody makes mistakes around here. None. Worse still, nobody is calling them out and delivering verdicts that are meaningful, as in ousters.
Third, and unlike Bill Gates, none are learning as to what has failed, and seeking to bring about necessary improvements to position this country to compete and to be a player, either regionally or in the international marketplace of ideas, products, and a voice from which there should be listening, with learning usually following.
Here, there is contentment with the old and failed; there is satisfaction with not listening and bludgeoning ahead heedlessly. It takes big people, caring leaders, citizen-servants to humble themselves to admit to the moment lost, the opportunity not grasped. Those are failures in and of themselves.
Instead, the many chronic nonperformers from now and before congratulate themselves (or employ public relations talents to overpower with falsehoods) on how much of a gift they have been to this country.
For philanthropy alone, Bill Gates could be considered a good man, if only for his outsized contributions to the world. In some well populated circles, they would award him the halo of greatness. Whether good or great, or merely ordinary, he has shown an all too human touch by owning up to monumental failure. No hedging. No finger pointing. No passing on of falling short to the team, or some hapless subordinate, or unsavory adversary.
This has never happened here. Never! From a political perspective, it is always the other man, the next group; winners write histories (and fables). Mistakes and failures are rewarded; with office, with continuing in power to deliver more and more failures.
Of course, there is always the feared jumbie man and ole higue of the other side for being responsible and making bad things happen. Such is the backwardness of this retarded society.
Many multibillion-dollar political mistakes to be shared all around: airport construction, bridge-building, land valuing and appropriating, tax collections, City Hall laxity, police reform, and one public procurement project after another.
And the political confessors? None! Not one. How much better would the poor, economy, governance, and society be if only a fraction of those costly errors were honestly admitted to and fixed? How much better if there was/is real accountability?
It does not matter to the voters who are burdened with the bill. Politicians who enrich themselves are welcomed with open arms. They flourish.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News