The leader who toppled a dictator (2)

Aquilino Pimentel Jr.

EXPANDING on the list of traits that a nation’s leader must possess, some social commentators claim that the leader should display five indispensable characteristics that include “humility,” a trait we had already discussed earlier as one of the magnets that attracted millions of people to Cory Aquino as the leader of the peaceful revolution that rid the Philippines of the Marcos dictatorial rule.

And those five leadership virtues are: Sacrifice, Accountability, Humility, Integrity, and Generosity; which a friend shrewdly encapsulated into a Tagalog-sounding acronym: SAHIG.

And what do the contents of SAHIG stand for?

“S” is for “Sacrifice”, a virtue that is demanded of any leader in that he or she must be ready to give up self-interest for the wellbeing of the many.

A leader cannot be self-centered. Otherwise, he becomes selfish. Then, he ceases to be leader, and becomes a dealer . In that capacity, more often than not, he or she would trade the common good for personal gain.

As a dealer, the erstwhile leader would, demolish the essence of public service – servicio publico – that tends to the public good by his or her attending, instead, to personal or familial wellbeing.

Hence, it is an absolute necessity for the leader to be ready to sacrifice his own comfort or that of his family to advance the common good.

Mahatma Gandhi is my favorite example of a leader who – without being elected to any public office – sacrificed everything, his career, his possessions and, ultimately even his life to lead the people of India in their struggle for freedom against British colonial  rule.

“A” is for “Accountability”, a quality that the life of a leader must, likewise, readily demonstrate that he or she possesses.

Put more simplistically, the leader must be transparent. Meaning, the leader must be ready to explain to the people the objectives, the means to achieve, and the consequences of any plan or project that he or she undertakes in the name of public interest.

This is especially true whenever public funds are used to finance any project. The projected cost as well as its actual cost must be known by the public. And when the law provides for it, public bidding must be done to qualify the contractors in a public and transparent manner.

Otherwise, corrupt transactions will prevail and derail one’s leadership. Or, at the very least, suspicions will hound the good intentions that the leader wishes to accomplish and will, then, make it difficult, if not impossible, for him or her to promote the general welfare in a credible manner.

No doubt, as previously mentioned, Cory Aquino also openly exemplified this characteristic of Accountability  as  the President of the land after the Marcos authoritarian rule was toppled in 1986.

“H” is for “Humility”, a feature that the leader’s personality should always demonstrate.

Without humility a leader would distract, not attract, followers.

Then, sooner than later he or she would be exposed as a humbug, a person who is interested only in promoting his or her self-interest by false discourse, and not the wellbeing of others.

If a leader is humble, he or she would  acknowledge that he or she cannot ascend the ladder of success without  the support of other people.

One is well advised to remember that the people, the leader passes by when he is ascending to power, would in great likelihood be the same people he would pass by on his descent from power.

We have already cited Cory Aquino as an example par excellence of a leader who exhibited this trait of Humility even as she was hailed by the nation as the savior of freedom and democracy for her role in dismantling the martial rule regime of Marcos.

“I” is for “Integrity”, an attribute that should ever be an integral part of a leader’s life.

If what the leader says is not borne out by what he or she does, then, the leader becomes a hypocrite in the eyes of the people, who would be shunned, not followed by them.

In our country, Ramon Magsaysay, to my mind, personified this virtue of integrity when he was our President.

And finally, “G” is for “Generosity” another vital attribute that the leader must possess.

The willingness to share what one has with others without extraneous considerations.

The leader must be ready to give his time, treasure and talent to serve others who are in need. At the time when his or her services are needed, and not a second later.

Do we have an example of this kind of a leader?

In the world’s political arena, the best model of a generous (and humble) leader of a nation would probably be Jose Alberto Mujica, the 40th President of Uruguay, whose term began in 2010 and ended last year, 2015.

Mujica chose to live in his farm house rather than in the presidential palace and to drive an old (1987) Volkswagen Beetle rather than a Cadillac.

Moreover, he gave away 90% of his salary to charity, saying he did not need it to survive with his wife and their three-legged dog in their farm. (to be concluded)

(Excerpts from the talk of former senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. at a forum sponsored by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung at the Discovery Primea, Makati City.)