We live in a community where people elect leaders to govern and act as oversight to matters that involve the populace. At the most ideal scenario, a leader encompasses all the attributes that make a person a cut above the rest—noble, selfless, and capable of rendering what is good.
But try as we might to epitomise leaders by virtue of certain traits; in reality, these very same people which the public is supposed to be looking up to are not always who they claim to be. Without the façade, most go to the contrary of what is basically the ideal—selfish, drawn to power and prestige and erroneous in their ways, much to the detriment of their subjects.
Time and time again, we have seen how leadership change and, much like the meme which alludes to the idea of the need to change a baby’s diaper, these “leaders” were replaced for the exact same reason—to be euphemistic, they simply had to be because they embody what people actually not like.
Although we would have past leaders as greatest precedents of this negative view of leadership, even modern leaders themselves—who would have known better than to follow the fault of their ancestors—are not necessarily better than the people they are supplanting—they, too, are corrupt; only differently as driven by the altered landscape of politics.
In light of all the problems that the old and the new exhibit, it is not that hard to surmise what makes great leaders based on the errors we saw and are seeing from the people placed on the pedestal of service.
But what better way to illustrate this sentiment than in verses well-written directly to our leaders from the past and the present:
To our old leaders
Your time had come and had served your purpose.
Whether you failed or not to live up to your promises is your own legacy.
Be glad if you do as you had surely made a difference.
If you did not, learn to give up and let another with a promise fulfil his/her own in your place.
Your placement is not indefinite, but only temporal—do not overstay your welcome.
In your corrupt ways, you had only served yourself and not others.
There is no need to prolong the inevitable—hand over the baton to someone more capable and more fitting.
By so doing, you are significantly reducing the damage you are unwittingly—or wittingly—inflicting.
You may have gotten away from it.
But know that your deeds are forever in the annals of history and in the minds of the people who see through them.
They are not blind even when you think yourself invisible under the cloak of shadow.
To our new leaders
You have seen the faults of the leaders before you and yet you did not stray away from them.
Instead, you merely moulded the same errors in your own ways, thinking they will not be noticed.
You are as corrupt as the people you tried to replace, only differently.
In the age of open expression, you had lost a sense of indiscretion.
It is one thing to show your opinions and feelings openly, but it is another to choose to embarrass yourself in public.
Never forget about decency—we are all ugly when naked.
You might think yourself as better than those you succeeded due to their own lacking or shortcoming.
But know that it takes compassion and humility than intelligence to be a greater person.
Keep your head low and your feet on the ground.
You are not any different from the people you are overseeing.
Only God and His angels can be in that high a pedestal.
