Monday, February 22, 2010

Praising Our Leaders Too Soon and Too Early

Praising Our Leaders Too Soon and Too High
M. Bakri Musa

Malaysians are generous to a fault. We are too charitable especially to
our guests and those new to us, without pausing to consider the
significant burden it imposes upon us and those we love. This is best
captured in our saying, Kera hutan di tetekan, anak di riba mati kehausan
(We breastfeed monkeys in the jungle while our infants die of thirst).

We are also treating our leaders as kera hutan, indulging them
only too readily. We are overly charitable to and very forgiving of them,
especially our new leaders. I can understand the rationale for such a
sentiment; we desperately want our leaders to succeed. By praising them
so soon and so highly we hope to inspire as well as encourage them to
lead us to greater heights.

The adulation of followers can indeed be a tonic to leaders,
invigorating them to redouble their efforts; likewise with prestigious
awards and public recognition. The Nobel Committee in awarding its Peace
Prize to President Obama so early in his tenure is clearly expressing the
hope of many that he would indeed bring about a more peaceful world.

There is however, a dangerous flip side to that hope.
Effusive praises, especially when clearly out of proportion or yet to be
deserved, risk swelling these leaders' head. Even if they do not have
mega-maniacal tendencies initially, such incessant drumbeat of praises
would inflate the ego of even the humblest of leaders. They would then
think that they are destined by God to lead us. From there it is but a
few easy and enticing steps away from asserting that they are indeed God.
Then no one could or would dare question them. There are many ready
examples of such inept but egotistical leaders at home and abroad, now
and in history. The ravages they inflict far outlive them.


Praising Najib Early and Excessively

Mohd. Najib Bin Abdul Razak has been Prime Minister for barely six months;
he delivered his first presidential speech to his party only last week.
As Prime Minister he had initiated only a few not-so-major policy shifts
thus far, such as liberalizing a small sub-sector of the economy, the
effectiveness of which has yet to be ascertained. Yet the high praises
are already pouring in by the torrent.

In describing his performance at the recent UMNO General
Assembly, one commentator in the mainstream media described it as "one of
his best off-the-cuff speeches that many in UMNO had witnessed." She went
on describing Najib as a "thinking president," gushingly concluding that
the meeting he chaired "as one of those special moments in UMNO's
history." Special moments! Wow!

` Another concluded with undisguised "astonishment at the
remarkable ability of the country's premier political party to renew,
reform and reinvent itself after the severe setback it suffered in the
12th general election." All in the few months since Najib took over!

There was no shortage of superlatives to describe the new
Najib, with terms like "transforming leader" and "thinking leader"
liberally thrown in, based simply on that first address he gave at the
UMNO Assembly.

Now that Najib had presented his first budget, dubbed "People
first; Performance now!" expect even more extravagant praises. I do not
however, share much of the artificially generated enthusiasm. At least
not yet.

It is a measure of our 'progress' that in discussing the
economy in his budget speech Najib was giddy that it was contracting less
severely now. I can see being exuberantly excited if it had actually
expanded, however slim. On another item, he proudly announced the
establishment of 30 "merit" scholarships for our students to attend top
universities. I would be more impressed if, after over 50 years of
independence, those scholarships were for sending our students to top
doctoral or MBA programs, not for undergraduate studies.


Art of Making Dim Candles Appear Brighter

Such embarrassingly embellished praises from established sycophants and
would-be supplicants, as well as blatant favor seekers, are to be
expected. After all, old habits are difficult to break, even if you are
committed to doing so. More problematic however, are the uncritical rave
reviews from otherwise seasoned observers.

This is not a new phenomenon or unique to Najib. When
Abdullah succeeded Mahathir, there were similar early outpourings of
uncritical praises for Abdullah. One otherwise solid scholar,
undoubtedly desperate to ingratiate himself, unabashedly described
Abdullah as a "social engineer par excellence."

Those commentators were not content with merely praising
Abdullah. To make him look even better, they resorted to actively
denigrating Mahathir. They must have felt that Abdullah's dim candle
could only appear brighter by snuffing out Mahathir's.

When I took those commentators to task for their nauseating
praises, they were furious, accusing me of being unnecessarily negative
and not missing any opportunity to denigrate our leaders. How could I
possibly know about Abdullah with my being away for so long, they
sneered.

I wonder if those who were so enthusiastic about Abdullah so
earlier on now feel they bear some responsibility for his subsequent
failure. Perhaps if they had been more restrained, Abdullah's ego would
not have been so swollen. Who knows, his basic humility may have taken
hold of him and he would have sought wider counsel. His tenure then
might have lasted longer and would not have been the colossal waste of
opportunities, for him and for the nation.

At the UMNO Assembly, Najib paid tribute to Abdullah for not
criticizing Najib, a pointed reference to what Mahathir did to Abdullah.
Both Najib and Abdullah are deeply mistaken in this. For had Mahathir not
been relentless and even unmerciful in his criticisms of Abdullah, the
latter would remain Prime Minister today, and we would all be still
enduring that terrible burden.

There is one positive aspect to the current orgy of praises on
Najib; at least those commentators are not running down his immediate
predecessor. I am uncertain whether that is necessarily a compliment to
Abdullah.

Najib should welcome and actively encourage criticisms not
just from Abdullah and Mahathir but also from others. That would be the
best assurance that Najib would avoid grievous errors in his
administration. Even a gifted and charismatic leader as Barack Obama,
with an overwhelming mandate from the people, welcomes criticism. As he
said in a White House Correspondents' dinner, "I may not agree with
everything you write or report. I may even complain, … but I do so with
the knowledge that when you are at your best, then you help me be at my
best."

Like others, I want Najib Razak to succeed, less for his sake
but more for our nation. I fear that these uncalled-for and overly
generous praises so soon in his tenure might just go to his head,
tempting him to rest on his laurels (slim as they are right now) instead
of striving harder.

We must not treat our leaders like our pet monkeys; we must
never indulge them. Instead we must subject them to the toughest
scrutiny and not be afraid to criticize them. And do so early and
fiercely. By all means, when Najib proves himself, then we can all be
generous to him.


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