The Editor
The Anguillian
Dear Editor:
“GOOD LEADERS ARE MADE, NOT BORN.”
Leadership requires good qualities for anyone who aspires to lead other people. When we think of great leaders a few come to mind. F.D.R., J.F.K, Bill Clinton and of course Barack Obama all of the United States of America; Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain; Pierre Trudeau of Canada; Dr. Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago; Norman Manley of Jamaica and Errol Barrow of Barbados.
Colin Powell, the retired four star general told a group of Graduate Students at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, that good leaders are made, not born. He went on to say that “leadership is all about people…and getting the most out of people. It’s about conveying a sense of purpose in a selfless manner and creating conditions of trust while displaying moral and physical courage.” He continued: “Never show fear or anger, you have to have a sense of optimism.”
Today, the 21st of January, we had the chance to witness leadership at its zenith, with the second inauguration of President Barack Obama of the United States. We saw the moral and physical courage that General Powell alluded to. We saw in the President a man who was determined to accomplish, by whatever means necessary, his agenda for the next four years. We saw him lay out a plan of what he was going to try to accomplish. Of course the Congress will have a say as to whether or not he succeeds. There were no ambiguities in his plan. We saw a man with a motive, the passion and the spontaneity, just to name a few of the characteristics of a great leader.
In Anguilla, this past week, we’ve had a chance to see leadership in action and what we saw left a lot to be desired. We saw a leader who lost control of the situation that frankly he had no business getting involved with in the first place. We saw that he lacked the wherewithal to effectively diffuse and control the situation. Instead, he made it worse by his verbosity general attitude and his condescending manner. Our esteemed leader showed a total lack of respect for the very same people he needed to sit down and talk to. He adopted an aggressive stance and it went downhill from there. The CM reverted to true form by running to the media and lambasting the very same people that he needed to negotiate with. Though the teachers have gone back to work teaching our children, the animosity between both sides still exists, not a good place to be going forward. This brings me back to the question of good leaders.
While the past week was a particularly bad one for the people of Anguilla, parents, teachers and children, the father of the nation, Mr. Ronald Webster, chose to make a gracious exit from all events pertaining to his birthday, a legal holiday. In a letter addressed to the current CM Mr. Hughes, Mr. Webster served notice that he did not wish to participate in nor have any festivities associated with his birthday. In his letter, he gave his reasons for not wanting the festivities to go forward. I sincerely believe that Mr. Webster feels that he’s done his job and now the time has come for new blood to take over the reins of government. He also recognizes that things are hard right now and somehow it does not seem right to engage in this sort of extravagance that the celebration would entail. It will be interesting to see if the present administration accedes to his wishes.
So there you have it. We’ve had a chance to see what great leadership is all about. We have had a chance to see the President of the United States of America exemplify great leadership. We’ve seen another leader totally go ballistic against his people and we’ve seen a third one act as gracious as they come. Great leaders act in a way that changes other people’s lives, while at the same time having a passion for doing so. General Powell in his lecture told his students that “good leaders learn from trial and error and by experience. When something fails, a true leader learns from the experience and puts it behind him. You don’t get reruns in life. Don’t worry about what happened in the past.”
It’s time to move forward. The question that needs to be asked is, will we?
We as a people seem to be stuck in the past. We measure what we do by what the last guy did. As soon as we get the chance, we hit the reset button and start all over again. As Lord Short Shirt says: “When will we learn to live together?” He goes on to say, “Sometimes I want to scream and scream and scream.” What happened this past week probably could have been avoided. We talk and write about civility in government and I’ll quote Mr. Rogers in an article, that he wrote just two weeks back, in which he said that the upper echelons of government should have respect for those on the other side. Well Mr. Rogers, what about your civil servants? Aren’t they entitled to the same courtesies? Was that anyway for the CM to treat his civil servants? So it’s good for the goose, but not the gander.
We wonder why things are the way they are right now. You were correct in your assessment of the behavior that’s being exhibited by all right now. When the young ones see our Chief Minister behaving in the manner in which he did, what are they to think? He is endorsing the “rudeness” to which you referred in your article. The young people see that sort of thing coming from the adults and they are emboldened when they do it. What do you think they will tell you when you try to admonish them? Someone definitely needs to sit down with the CM and have a talk with him about his leadership style. Again, I say: you can catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar. Words to live by.
General Powell says never show fear or anger, be optimistic. We see the fear and anger. Where is the optimism? We appreciate the father of the nation, Mr. Webster, being able to recognize a bad situation and not wanting to exacerbate it. I think in time we’ll come to really appreciate what this man has done for us. He’s not always been perfect. I’m sure that he’s made his share of blunders and he’ll be the first to tell you so. We also saw in a US President, a man who also recognized that things were pretty hard in the US too and therefore cut back on the amount of partying connected with the inauguration. Again, great leaders always rise to the occasion. Mr. Webster, no matter what they say. To the loudmouth who says that he was the true leader, he should have been called out for the charlatan that he truly is. I know that’s not your style, or you would have done it a long time ago, but the truth will be told. There were just too many of us around to let anything else be told. I say what’s done is done. Let’s move forward and get things rolling again with or without the CM’s help. Till then, God bless us all and may God bless Anguilla.
TYRONE HODGE
