Are the leaders you voted in national leaders?

Good leaders arise from grass-root leaders who have found the ability and desire to lead people first from a small group, a residential area, then a whole community and finally a nation.

However, it is not always the case that grass-root or community leaders can become good national leaders. What is the difference and why not? Well, what makes a good community leader? It could be the deep concern of that leader for his community or race that cause him/her to put in effort to fight for the cause of improving the lot of the race or community. To be a good leader of a race or community, he/she concentrates only on the problems and ways to bring about changes and improvement to that particular group of people. He/She is not bothered about the other communities or races, whether those groups of people also require help or attention is beyond his/her scope of leadership. To put it bluntly, it just isn’t his/her problem. And, of course, whether his/her actions are detrimental to the other races or communities, perhaps even to the country, does not deter him/her from continuing with the cause at hand.

It is similar to unionists or union leaders fighting for the benefits of their union members. What matters to the unionists is the benefits they can get for their members and themselves. If in obtaining such benefits, others find themselves in a worst position, it would not affect their fight. For them, it would be: If you want to have the same benefits, then you get your union to fight for you.

Thus, unless all the unions form a bigger union which comprises of all other unions, the leaders will only fight for the union they represent. In the civil service for example, the government servants’ unions combine to form an umbrella body to represents all the government clerical staff, government teachers, government lab assistants and so forth.

Then when leaders are in the main union, they have to change their thinking to that of safeguarding the interest of all the civil servants and not just the teachers or the clerks. The benefits are not for one particular group but for all.

Similarly, leaders or politicians in the government must no longer think of the welfare of just any particular group but everybody in the nation. The development thoughts of these politicians must involve every citizen and not just a portion of the citizens. When it comes to issues of poverty, lack of jobs, infrastructure development, education, financial assistance, there are no borders; all poor citizens are helped, the jobless citizens are assisted, every part of the country, regardless of factors, is to be developed, education made available to every citizen with sufficient libraries, kindergartens and fully equipped schools in every nook and corner of the country. In Malaysia especially, with our natural resources, if the money of this country is well-spent, all that has been suggested is possible. With what has been suggested, every citizen who merits assistance, financially or infrastructural, will be provided for.

Well, today in America, there is an example of a truly national leader. The president is an American Negro. Why would an American Negro be elected by a population which comprises of a majority of Whites? Simply because they believe this man is an American who can take them to greater progress and development without prejudice regardless of social background, race or religion. As a national leader, good or bad, his thoughts are on development of progress of the country for all Americans, not just the American Negros, the American Whites , the American Red Indians or the American Chinese. That ought to be the case for all national level leaders, no matter what country the leaders lead.

It is of utmost importance that national leaders are capable of establishing a mind which is able to think of the country’s welfare and progress with the interest of all its citizens in mind at all times, for this is the only way to move the country forward and not stop or stagnant its growth with community or racial issues which hijacks the interest of the nation as a whole. For every national leader, an example has been made by the American people. Let us emulate the success of that country where exemplary leadership is available.