As a new fiscal year approaches, the Christie administration can be expected to defend the decisions it made, take credit for its successes, and blame others – or circumstances – for its failures. And for sure, the Bahamian people will have their own perspective and opinion as to who should get to shoulder responsibility for whatever is the bottom line.
That is just the way it is in a democracy. and that is quite the way it should be. As the attentive public remembers all so well, Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Perry G. Christie did make a powerful promise to the Bahamian people to the effect that in the same way that Pindling in 1967 had to exhort Bahamians to strive for excellence and to lift themselves up, the new PLP Government of Perry Christie in 2002 must now inspire Bahamians to transform themselves to meet the challenges and embrace the opportunities that lie before them.
He promised no less an Age of Transformation – a transformation in the way we govern; a transformation in the institutional framework of governance; a transformation in values and attitudes; and a transformation in the way we relate to each other as members of our society.
As far as words and promises go, this is a tall bill.
While ‘transformation’ may have arrived for some Bahamians, tens of thousands of others are waiting for their fair share. In the meanwhile this nation sometimes seems as if it is adrift. On occasion it seems as if some one has decreed that Flight Bahamas should be put on autopilot. And here the reference is not only to the politicians, but also refers to any number of other so-called leaders.
The question which keeps coming back concerns a living puzzle, that being the presence of scads of leaders and the clear impression we are getting that no-one is in charge; and that things are drifting.
Even now, some Bahamians are being persuaded by the argument that things seem to be dropping to pieces not because they actually are, but because leadership in many areas is in crisis – that it is soft, and that it is somehow terrified about making hard choices.
Whether reference is made to how families are governed and who governs in them; or churches and other civic associations, or the government itself, the demands upon leadership are always the same.
We suggest that leaders worth their salt would first become knowledgeable about what it is they are called to do as leaders; and that they carry out their purpose in a manner which is right, and just, and good.
Put otherwise, leaders should act as if they were governed by heart and conscience.
This means that we are talking about a style of leadership, which is true and just, and not leadership that can be described as ‘blinded’.
In this regard, suffice it to say that we were warned a long time ago about what happens when the blind lead the blind. Truth is that they both fall in the ditch. We begin thus as we initiate a series of observations and commentaries on the question of leadership and its political salience in society.
Paradoxically -but understandably- there are those people who would want to believe that ‘leadership’ is all about getting the job done. Or you would have the kind of character who would have others believe that real leadership in business has to do almost exclusively with the bottom line. And so, business types who routinely rip others off are widely admired for their business savvy.
There are those other so-called and quite often self-styled ‘leaders’ who are absolutely persuaded that the essence of leadership is to be found in talking the good talk, and thereby somehow mesmerizing a gullible majority into believing that leadership is all about high-sounding words and rhetoric. And worst of all, leadership is truly pathetic when it comes off as specializing in pandering.
When parents pander, they spoil their children. Similarly when pastors preach-as it were to the peanut gallery- they do themselves and the Word a profound disservice. The same thing applies to that brand of politician who would do anything or say anything to curry favor with what they perceive to be public opinion.
Our conclusion to the matter at hand concerning leadership is that those who are called to lead should know what they are about, and do what they are supposed to do, namely lead. Leaders lead. Effective leaders lead effectively and efficiently.
Editorial from The Bahamas Journal
