Financial Times

Hilarious icons of leadership
"National icons of leadership-Ouch, My foot!" said the Wise Old Owl trying to disentangle its claws from the twigs of the leaders in governance and vines of leaders of business, media and society.

All these twigs and vines are the impediments that restrict civil society, in leading their daily lives in peace, harmony, freedom, contentment and without fear or favour. These restricting influences now appear to even limit the freedom of thought and action of society.

"How else can one explain the action of civil society in nominating the present day politicians to the first five places in the league table of national icons of leadership?"

The political leaders, their henchmen and the media must have corrupted the minds and blinkered the citizens to achieve such a verdict. How else can one explain, these individuals who are driven by personal gain, power, position, ego and self-preservation being the preferred choice of the people? They have openly and unashamedly placed the interest of themselves, their family, and their party above the interests of the nation and its people.

Have they mesmerized the people to select them and crown them with mantles of national leadership? Did the people not even for a moment benchmark their nominees with global leaders like Mahathma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, Mahathir Mohamed and Lee Kwan Yew? Why didn't they compare national heroes like Reverend Madihe Pannaseha, General Denzil Kobbekaduwa and Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne with these politicians? How come that the national heroes of the tsunami disaster like the doctors and nurses who delivered a baby with a torch light in the Galle hospital whilst waves were lashing in and the old mariner turned village headman who warned the people of the village by just shouting at his loudest, escape the attention of the people at the voting time?

The Wise Old Owl recollects the presentation Mieko Nishimizu, Vice Presedent, South Asia Region, of the World Bank made at the Sri Lanka Development Forum in Colombo in June 2002, starting the proceedings with the words " History occasionally opens up a unique space in which those bold enough to leap can make all the difference for generations to come.

Similarly, the leap not taken, can lock those same future generations in the prison of their past. That historic space visits seldom upon us. And when it does, it requires leadership of vision and courage to recognize it and to make the leap. I believe Sri Lanka has been visited with just a historic opportunity. I believe, too, that Sri Lanka's leaders have seen the opportunity. And I believe that the nation is trembling on the verge of a leap". Unfortunately yet again all the leaders now tagged with the icons of leadership did not leap. By stepping sideways, they have locked the future generations in prisons of the past. How is it that the civil society now tags them as leaders, instead of criminals who harmed the present and future generations?

The civil society mind appears to have been corrupted, in that "they see no evil and hear no evil of politicians - The Media bears all responsibility" speaks out the Wise Old Owl " They consistently focus attention on politicians and show them good or they show them bad and corrupt, but in both cases they show them big, great and as heroes. So at first recall by civil society, the leaders are only those who are so tagged by media.

Politicians are not tagged by valuing the selfless action they have performed and by the value contributed to the nation and its people and the vision, commitment and directions set to positively marshal the people and resources of the nation. At the crucial voting time the corrupt practices, thuggery, nepotism and seeds of disharmony and destruction sowed by the politicians have been ignored by the civil society.

Scientific evidence appears to indicate that normal people have only a very short memory capacity at a detail level, limited to events of a few days prior at most. However, the subconscious mind has the capacity to recollect details of many years, when asked to recollect events under deep hypnotism, even extending up to the time of the birth of the person. The Wise Old Owl has a suggestion to the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing -- The next time round the survey of national icons of leadership is conducted, please use deep hypnosis on the participants before asking them the questions, having ascertained that the media viruses that corrupted the minds have not got embedded on the deep sub conscious computer.

The writer could be contacted at wo_owl@yahoo.co.uk

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