A different kind of leadership

Sep 24, 2015

By Anil Netto
These are trying times, and several events and incidents have added to the prevailing sense of gloom. The murder of DPP Kevin Morais shocked the nation and brought to vivid detail the extent to which the corruption has spread. Many were personally affected as they scanned the news daily to find out what had happened to him. Even after his body was found, the official theory was greeted with some degree of cynicism, reflecting the prevailing “trust deficit” in the country.

The protest by the Red Shirts left a sense of disquiet. Few people were left in any doubt as to whose interests the rally goers were trying to protect. Statements by various leaders did not dispell the unease felt by many that the Red Shirts rally was being used to focus attention on chauvinistic issues instead of the broaders issues that Bersih 4 had highlighted.

The haze shows little sign of lifting. Not a few are walking around with masks to protect their lungs and to make it easier for them to breathe. We know that a big part of the problem originates from oil palm plantations in the region. But there is very little national or regional political will to tackle the problem.

The economy continues to drift listlessly. Now, concerns are being expressed about the decision to use ValueCap as a vehicle to raise RM20bn which would then be used to prop up the share market.

How will the funds be raised and will they be prudently used? 1MDB is still fresh on the minds of many — a case with many, many disturbing questions unanswered. How did we get into this quagmire, this mess?

Greed and power are a couple of factors. A culture of greed has taken hold in our land. This greed is not just individual but may even be corporate or political greed.

Greed combined with power can have disastrous consequences. It can blind us to rational thinking to counter some of the problems we have.

When power is concentrated in the hands of a few, without effective institutional checks and balances, then the problem is aggravated.

I was having dinner the other day with an acquaintance, and he held court with his views about public life. He said great leaders have to be corrupt, and even the leaders of powerful countries are no less corrupt.

My eyes widened. After all, many of us believe that a great leader has to be a person of high integrity.

But when I returned home, I reflected on what he had said and I think my acquaintance’s views resonated with what the 19th century historian and politician Lord Acton said about power having a corrupting tendency.

Acton questioned why the serious wrongs of great leaders were glossed over or ignored in history and why they were spared punishment for their crimes, unlike other less powerful. In a letter to Archbishop Mandell Creighton of the Church of England on April 5, 1887, Acton wrote:

“If there is any presumption it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that which the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which the negation of Catholicism and the negation of Liberalism meet and keep high festival, and the end learns to justify the means. You would hang a man of no position like Ravaillac; but if what one hears is true, then Elizabeth asked the gaoler to murder Mary, and William III. ordered his Scots minister to extirpate a clan. Here are the greatest names coupled with the greatest crimes; you would spare those criminals, for some mysterious reason. I would hang them higher than Haman, for reasons of quite obvious justice, still more, still higher for the sake of historical science.”

Now, Acton was actually a Catholic and even served as editor of a Catholic monthly paper, The Rambler, in 1859, after the famous John Henry Newman (who later became cardinal) retired.

Taking Acton’s views about power in all sectors, whether political or religious, to its logical conclusion, it was not surprising that his publication later ran into conflict with the Catholic hierarchy of the time, which issued it a public censure.

Acton quit publishing though he believed strongly in communion with Rome. The point Acton was trying to make was that we should hold all leaders, whether political or religious, to high standards and not somehow exempt them for their wrongs.

Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, that is not the case. For power brings with it temptations and it takes a special person, the strength of character and integrity to resist greed and the tendency towards absolute power.

In the real world, the corrupt lord it over the people and for a time, the forces of darkness and greed are seen to rule the roost. And absolute power, which undermines institutions, makes it difficult for corrupt leaders to be dealt with.

How different this is from the type of leadership Jesus points us to — a servant leadership where power is to be used in service of the common good (Matthew 20:25-27): “You know that among the gentiles the rulers lord it over them, and great men make their authority felt. Among you this is not to happen. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave.”