by: DONALD SEVILLA

LEADERSHIP GOALS

A leader is born and bred. He is one with his people and looks after their every need. He has empathy and the welfare of those he is tasked to protect in his heart. 

Yet, many who present themselves to be our leaders  fail miserably to live up to our goals and expectations.  They  are not up to the task as they do not see the gravity of their responsibilities. 

Taking things lightly, it’s as if they’re playing a game. The people suffer because of a leader’s incompetence and lack of managerial skills. We bear the brunt of their ineptitude and poor governance. 

While we impose stringent requirements to those who apply for jobs in our businesses and households, ironically we do not scrutinize those we elect into public office. 

Running for public office is much easier than applying for a job as a sales clerk in a department store or any other business. 

The feisty lady senator, Miriam Santiago expressed her disgust by opining that we should impose qualifications on those whom we elect. For just about anybody who can read and write with money on hand and can mount a campaign can be voted upon. 

Yet after so many years of conducting elections and patronizing our kind of politics, we never learned our lessons. We keep on repeating our mistakes and fall for the same types of people who are good at deceiving us. 

For us to thrive comfortably and function well as a society, we must have good and “working “leaders. We must shy away from the populist types who are only good at patting backs and cheerfully waving at crowds. We need people of substance and brains to lead us out from inflation, crime and other problems we face. 

We should not be carried away by clever propaganda and drama. We should learn to read between the lines and be good observers of people’s characters. 

When we elect clowns into office what can we expect?  Our government is only as good as the people we vote to lead us. We cannot have good results if we use substandard products and practices for manufacturing .Similarly, we cannot have good governance with the poor quality of leaders we elect. 

Thus, we must be more discerning and careful in our choices, otherwise, we could be jumping from the frying pan into the fire.  Are we happy with our present crop of leaders?  Have we chosen wisely? 

Regrets do not come early but late!