10 February 2016 12:09 am Views - 2585
As we move into the eco-friendly, all-inclusive development year 2016, Government leaders need to be conscious of some of the main dangers or temptations facing them. It applies to religious, business and civic society leaders also.
The first and most dangerous is the desire or temptation to misuse or abuse power. We saw this to a horrible or monstrous extent when the rule of law broke down, a family dynasty emerged and public funds amounting to billions of rupees were plundered. Some of the VIPs involved in this have been indicted in courts after months of detective work conducted by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) of the Police. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s loyalists are breaking thousands of coconuts in devales to invoke curses on FCID officers. Even a senior SLFP minister last week called for the disbanding of the FCID. But President Maithripala Sirisena has strongly defended the work of the FCID saying it was appointed on a Cabinet decision.
President Sirisena has repeatedly declared – and did so even on Independence Day – that he is the chief servant leader of the people. Selfless, sincere and sacrificial servant leadership is what we need most today. We hope President Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and others will not only preach servant leadership but also practise it. Government leaders have been given a mandate or power to serve the people, not to dominate or abuse them. Those who dominate the people in a dictatorial way and plunder public money will suffer the consequences that the former regime’s VIPs are facing.
Another major danger or temptation is the desire to get more money, wealth or possessions. Writers such as India’s Arundathi Roy have said there are not four but five major world religions. Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and what is the fifth-the golden deity of money. Hundreds of millions of people, including political and even some religious leaders knowingly or unknowingly are worshiping this golden calf.
The third major danger or temptation is the desire to seek cheap popularity or prestige. Leaders and others know that this personal glory is transient and impermanent. Yet they seek it and end up in a hell of a mess as some of the former regime’s VIPs are in now.
Leaders of the Government and others need to go beyond the whitewashed sepulchres of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. They need to practise what they preach and preach only what they practise. In blunt terms, walk the talk. Government leaders and others need to honestly search their conscience and ask themselves some questions regarding money, wealth and possessions. Do these give them security or success, power or prestige? If the answer to a large extent is yes, then they need to come to an awareness that they are not sincere servant leaders of the people, but are seeking gain or glory for themselves or their parties. Awareness or inner admission of this duplicity could help them to make a 180º turn, so that what they do during their term in office will not end with the next election but will be remembered for generations. As Shakespeare has said, to thine own self be true, and then it will follow, as day does night, that you cannot be false to anyone.