WE ARE LED BY VACUOUS LEADERS
ON APRIL 5, 2017, Donald Trump was having dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping. As he describes it in typical Trump style, “it was a great dinner”. Then he goes on to describe the dessert. It was the “best chocolate cake dessert”, and during the interview, he demonstrates how big the chocolate cake dessert slices were with his hands.
It was during this sumptuous dessert that a general leaned over to him and said that the ships were loaded to fire. Fire what? That was my question as I listened to the interview. Well, fire missiles into Syria – 59, to be exact.
But Trump stayed focused on his huge dessert and kept on eating – while at the same time giving the presidential command to release weapons – 59 missiles – against a foreign nation.
From Trump’s interview, it sounded as if the interruption of his dessert was of greater concern than ordering missiles to be launched into Syria.
A foreign nation was being militarily attacked by a superpower – and its president gives such orders over dessert. And after the missiles were launched, he casually leans over to President Xi to tell him the news: “I just launched 59 missiles in Syria, and the missiles all hit the target. Wow, brilliant work.”
During the interview, he confuses Syria with Iraq. But he remembers his chocolate cake dessert in detail.
The now-former president of the US started a war while eating chocolate cake dessert. This is the vacuous state of leadership in the world today.
The fact that those who lead us can think it is of insignificant consequence that they should have the intellectual and mental acuity to grasp and operate within a global political framework is a considerable risk to our global stability. The fact that people have not applied themselves to the serious study of international politics, law, or development yet seek to pronounce on matters of country and planet with all the bravery of a chocolate cake eater should scare all of us.
South African politicians from all political parties owe us a particular skill-set to deliver the most brilliant democracy to an expectant nation. We have roads to build. Power stations to stabilise. An economy to dig out of the grave. At the same time, South Africa has a leadership structure with a largely vacant intellectual capacity.
We have traded our hard-won scholarly global leadership for smalltown party-political cowboys who can mouth off platitudes but cannot think intelligently about the political delivery ecosystem.
A country as fragile as ours, as unequal as ours and as resourceful as ours requires a highly intelligent and competent team of leaders. Academic achievement is a must. Further study – short courses included – is a must. Subjecting our leadership to the rigours of global peer standards is a must. Intellectual capacity is a must. Competency is a must. Well-developed leadership and portfolio-relevant skills is a must. Our systems of governance require such intellectual capacity.
We risk becoming a nation of chocolate cake eaters who impress our partners with the size of our chocolate cake slices instead of our ability to build universities, hospitals and power stations.
With an economy and constitutional framework in ICU, we don’t have room to be led by people who don’t have the intellectual and academic capacities to lead a complex democracy. We have had enough of reactionary, dull, clichéd, bullying in our politics. A government leadership role is not a reward for past loyalties. It’s a duty to country. We are exhausted by the clowning behaviour that seeks our votes.
Our looming failed state status is one of the signs of the absent competencies. We have too many government leaders who are intellectual, academic and human rights absentees. They do not have the intellectual capacity, nor competency, for the complex demands of our democracy. It’s time to pull the (red) carpet from under their feet.
● This will be the last column written under changeourstories. Davids is no longer working for the Community Chest but will continue to write for the Cape Argus.