Leadership deficit

Nearly nine months into government there are a lot of indications about the character and quality of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s leadership. And the indications are not good, to say the least. “Character is fate,” wrote Heraclitus, the sixth century BC Greek philosopher. If that’s true, little lies in store for Dahal, and it also means that our hopes for moral and visionary leadership may elude us once again.Leadership basically means four things—imagination, moral integrity, charisma and willpower. Forget about the past kings and Pancha prime ministers; even the democratically elected leaders failed to display leadership qualities.In post-1950 Nepal, the country’s modern political era, only two leaders stand out—B P Koirala and Madan Bhandari. Koirala displayed these qualities amply—he was an inspirational leader with high moral integrity and also a man of action and determination. Bhandari’s public life was too short to be judged on each of these counts but his charisma mesmerized people even then. He also showed wisdom and imagination in transforming what was still a radical party in 1990—the UML— into a moderate, left-of-centre party. Unfortunately, neither of them was tested long enough in power — Koirala was put in jail after one-and-half years of his premiership; Bhandari died in a car accident three years into public life and never made it to the highest office.The rest of the democratically elected leaders—Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Girija Prasad Koirala, Manmohan Adhikari and Sher Bahadur Deuba—showed more deficit than resource.Bhattarai’s moral integrity, especially when it comes to probity in public life, and intellect were commendable. His sense of humor sometimes compensated for lack of charisma. But he was hardly a man of action, something which Girija Prasad Koirala is. Willpower is in abundant supply with Koirala but imagination has cheated him. Sometimes I wish we had the power to combine Bhattarai’s intellect and integrity and Koirala’s willpower, determination and dynamism in one leader.Manmohan Adhikari, too, valued integrity highly and lived accordingly. But he was hardly the man in charge even when he was party president and prime minister—he was just the figurehead of a mammoth party organization that inherited him and not the other way round. Sher Bahadur Deuba had abundant luck but nothing else to become a leader.Where does PM Dahal fit? And where will he take us?Give him a full score for audacity—not for his judgment though— in leading the people’s war. Equal score for his ability to show flexibility and to reach out for compromise when he deems it necessary. There is another quality which strikes a chord with people: His frankness. Sometimes he is more candid than he should have been in public.But lately Prachanda is displaying some serious deficits: He is self-centered and manipulative.Senior party leaders say in private that he knows how best to defend his personal interests and keeps the party divided to serve them. Efforts to establish Narayankaji Shrestha as de-facto number two in the Maoist hierarchy hasn’t gone down well in the party, certainly not with Babauram Bhattarai.Bhattarai feels doubly cheated. When Bhattarai told Dahal that he had no interest in joining the cabinet just as a senior minister the latter promised to make him sole deputy prime minister. It was only during the oath-taking ceremony that Bhattarai learnt the post of deputy prime minister had gone to Bam Dev Gautam. Ever since there has been no warmth between the two. Not just Bhattarai, but many other senior Maoist leaders feel disillusioned with Dahal, primarily because of his “double-dealing” and manipulations.Centralization of party resources provides another useful window into the life and character of the prime minister. Prachanda’s son-in-law is the one who handles party funds. No one except the father- and son-in-law know the details of the party’s income and expenses. And who are his aides at Baluwatar? Most are relatives. All this points to a serious question about integrity. We all know that Dahal is not an intellectual, but if he also lacks integrity what kind of leadership does he have to offer? At best, he will just try to patch things up here and there and try to hang on, and at worst he will be ready to do unimaginable things. Remember, absence of intellect and integrity can be a dreadful mix.Prachanda’s public track record is equally uninspiring. He does not take seriously the promises he makes in public and he may commit himself to something or anything, but not mean it. He has gaffed, bungled and lied so many times the public no longer trusts him. If there is one thing that a leader needs to stir a country out of trouble it is the TRUST of the people.During the Great Depression when there was a run on banks in the United States, threatening a complete meltdown of the financial system, President Franklin D Roosevelt appeared in public, laughed off the crisis and declared that the banks had enough deposits for withdrawal. The next day the bank run eased because the American people trusted Roosevelt.So far, Dahal’s colleagues and people in general have not pointed a finger at him because his failures have not become too obvious. Once they become obvious, there will be no one to share the blame — victory has a hundred fathers but defeat is an orphan. Hope Dahal understands that and mends his ways before it’s too late.

Courtesy: AMEET DHAKAL