WE LACK LEADERSHIP?

The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet





We have answered so many astonishing questions in the century gone by — can we put a man on the moon? How do atoms work? But mysteries endure, and even after a century, we are no closer to an answer for the greatest of historical questions: Where do leaders come from? It’s a lively question as we gaze at the pink morning of a new dawn, a question that vibrates with possibility and that engages both our hopes and fears: Who will be the Nalsen Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, or Khomeni of 2007? Will we have another Hitler? Who will rescue us from him? It's a historical tautology that leaders are generated by their times and that great issues produce great men. And while we can't predict the leaders of the next decade, let alone the century, we can at least glimpse the likely shape of their era.

While recent history was written at the intersection of ideologies — communism versus capitalism, fascism versus democracy — the end of the cold war has produced a collection of other, more subtle challenges. In places as diverse as Kosovo and Colombo, new history is being written in the blood of deep-seated ethnic panics. "Global politics is being reconfigured along Religions lines,” Political boundaries are increasingly redrawn to coincide with cultural ones: ethnic, religious and civilization." At the same time, much of the world is being remade by a global economy that has linked political openness to economic growth. Democracy, always a moral high ground, turns out to be good for business. But the idea that we are moving toward a single global culture is both wrong and dangerous. Economic strength and social mobility will unlock a new, more complex balance of power as even simple ideas about how we live our lives come into question.

It reminds me of President Musharaf Book “In the Line of Fire”. I personally found that book quite interesting and believe me for a generation I belong; it is an eye opener, about how a country can break in a jiffy if right decisions are not made at the right time . Many people suggested it as self proclamation but if a person who becomes the Army Chief of a country and then has the guts to become the president and Chief Executive, explains how he rose to become the most known faces of the world, in my opinion does not need to write a book to become a hero , He is already one!. The book explains how a leader has to become flexible in his decision. Had Pakistan decided to go the other way may be it would have been wiped out of the map. The general showed farsightedness and saved his country from destruction. It is he who brought Pakistan back on the track and don’t forget it is he who initiated the peace talks between India and Pakistan . Never in the history of subcontinent has a Pakistani ruler, not only gone out of way to talk of a purposeful and acceptable solution to Kashmir but also given one. You like it or not, he is emerging as a great leader and in the contemporary world a strong statesmen. According to his book “Leadership is inborn to a degree , but it can be acquired through effort , It is an art , not all science .It is an art of interacting and talking with people , it is the art of reacting to situations and is an art of meeting challenges, what most people like in most of our leaders, aside from his character is decisiveness, as well as boldness and a cool temperament . A leader must understand his environment in all its intricacy. He must always have a finger on the pulse of times. I read in one of the write ups from a UK tabloid that it is paradoxical that elsewhere the western countries talk of democracy but when it comes to Pakistan the choice is always the dictatorship. The army is not accountable and as long as the General is in uniform they have a say. I like many disagree with such an assertion, an average Pakistani has seen the futility of war and he has seen how regime after regime has exploited the situation. He wants peace and if it is available by an army men, why not..., hasn’t he done an excellent job! Like he puts it quite stringy that a leader has to have the ability to motivate, inspire them infuse confidence in them. The nation must see the leader perform upfront .Only a man of real substance can be a true leader. In such a queue, I find him on top!. Most people are seduced by the lure of the comfort zone. The average person, when he feels the storm swirling outside his comfort zone, rushes back inside where it’s nice and warm. But not the true leader. The true leader has the courage to step away from the familiar and comfortable zone and to face the unknown with no guarantees of success. It is this ability to “boldly go where no man has gone before” that distinguishes you as a leader from the average person. This is the example that you must set if you are to rise above the average. It is this example that inspires and motivates other people to rise above their previous levels of accomplishment as well. Alexander the Great, the king of Macedonia, was one of the most superb leaders of all time. He became king at the age of 19, when his father, Philip II, was assassinated. In the next 11 years, he conquered much of the known world, leading his armies against numerically superior forces.Yet, when he was at the height of his power, the master of the known world, the greatest ruler in history to that date, he would still draw his sword at the beginning of a battle and lead his men forward into the conflict. He insisted on leading by example. Alexander felt that he could not ask his men to risk their lives unless he was willing to demonstrate by his actions that he had complete confidence in the outcome. The sight of Alexander charging forward so excited and motivated his soldiers that no force on earth could stand before them.

Over the years, we have been led to believe that leaders are those who stride boldly about, exude power and confidence, give orders and make decisions for others to carry out. However, that is old school. The leader of today is the one who asks questions, listens carefully, plans diligently and then builds consensus among all those who are necessary for achieving the goals. The leader does not try to do it by himself or herself. The leader gets things done by helping others to do them. In the lighter vein as Groucho Marx puts it “Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men -- the other 999 follow women.

In the world where emails and communication are backbones of a VIBRANT nations there have been people from around the world who are fighting, with careful passion, for their beliefs.. We tend to beleive that we are living in peaceful times, but short, temporary bursts of tranquility have followed all the major wars of this century — think of the Roaring Twenties and the boom years of the 1950s. Today’s leaders have to ensure that the current era of peace and prosperity continues long after the close of the cold war. The next 100 years will bubble with questions that are as difficult as the ones we have faced in this century. Perhaps, because of their incredible subtlety, these questions are even more difficult. And our future leaders? Ultimately, just like Churchill and Reagan and Mandela, they will find the answers to these hard questions in their own hearts. If there is one lesson of the past 100 years, it is that conscience remains the truest guide. "A man does what he must," . We have wasted enough years hoping for the impossible. As I said in the beginning, the world geography has been changing every fifty years. May be it does someday. Till then let us opt for peace and progress. In the changed global context boundaries are disappearing and narrow nationalism is fast losing its appeal. Economy is preceding ideals and ideologies. We have entered an era where hollow slogans and destructive emotionalism have absolutely no relevance. It’s high time that people start taking decisions. As they rightly say “You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.