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What Leaders and Citizens Can Do
Sometimes it takes an old leader or two to make the case for what is
broken in the ranks of today's leaders-and how it can be fixed
before it is too late.
Here, two leaders who matriculated at very different political schools
of thought-Mikhail Gorbachev and Jimmy Carter - share their views in
2002 on what is wrong and how it can be righted.
Former President Mikhail Gorbachev
"Today, we can say that politics, international politics, is lagging behind
the times, and we need leadership in order to implement what I've said
in terms of real projects," said former Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev. I think that too many leaders today, perhaps all political leaders
today, have assumed certain commitments, to certain lobbies, to certain
groups. They do that during their election campaigns, and then they
feel bound by those commitments. And as a result, I think they become
corporate leaders more than national leaders, and they do not fully
understand that to be a true national leader, they have to understand that
their nations today exist in a global world. And I would say that without
understanding that, we really will not be able to address the challenges.
"Today, a politician should understand that his commitments are not
just to those who funded his election campaign, that his commitment is
to the nation and to the world. And only on the basis of this can we build
a path to the future, and can we address the problems that I have enumerated.
We really need a new world order.
"Well, this cannot go on. I really believe that we should rebuild and
correct our entire approach, both in national and international politics.
And I've been thinking that perhaps it is because of the perceived inability
to solve the problems that we are facing today that we see so much
saber rattling. Perhaps it's because politicians are not sure that they can
solve real problems, that they are building more and more weapons. And
we see that weapons building frenzy, not only in big countries, but even
in smaller countries. We now have 31 states that are threshold nuclear
powers, that are on the threshold of building nuclear weapons.
"But I think that if we have that situation, that more and more countries
have nuclear weapons, perhaps biological weapons and chemical
weapons, the result would be a mad house. We will not have a world;
we'll have a mad house."
Former President Jimmy Carter
"One of the things I've learned, I would say perhaps more since I left the
White House than while I was president, is how attitudes of ordinary citizens
can be welded or shaped by leaders, with their rhetoric," said former
President Jimmy Carter. "You can inspire a nation to want to go to
war, to despise another people by the persuasive words of a respected
leader."
"But the thing that gives me hope for the future - in the Middle East
... or on a global basis to control nuclear weapons - is that the people of
every society really want peace. And they need to be guided by their leaders
not to an avenue of hatred and animosity and exacerbating differences
that are inevitable - religious, ethnic differences, geographical
differences - but how do we assuage another people? How do we understand
them and offer them an agreement, or resolution of a potential
conflict, where both sides come out winners?
"So, that commitment to a negotiation, or mediation, or dialogue
process to resolve problems, and respect for other people who differ from
us, I think, is a potential solution to regional conflicts and to the potential
of a global nuclear holocaust. Because one that is regional can very
well precipitate in an uncontrollable way to a much greater war."
Carter continued: "One of the nurturing places for terrorism are countries
that have so seriously deprived their own citizens of basic human
rights that the citizens lose their self-respect and become hopeless about
the future, and inherently tend to blame their plight on some - someone
else - quite often, their own leaders. And that's the origin of almost all
civil wars. Otherwise, they tend to single out, in this new era of globalization
or instant communication, symbols of excessive wealth and waste
and what they consider to be degenerate lives. And there is fostered
within that despairing a hopeless person, an inclination to take action to
protect oneself, to protect one's religious beliefs, and maybe to improve
one's own lot in life.
"And that is a breeding ground for terrorism when, under the guise of
a mistaken interpretation of God's will, or the will of Allah, of whatever
object of worship [that] might be, persuasive people say it's God's will to
kill, or to maim, or to destroy, or to embarrass those people who may have
caused your plight and your cause for despair and hopelessness. And
that's what we need to address." …
As those two former presidents reflected upon what leaders could do to
make the world safer, they understood all too well that the presidents in
Washington and Moscow must have the foresight and courage to make it
a top priority. If they are willing to act decisively and rapidly, a number of
proposals can become realities - but only after they become presidential
priorities …
As Gorbachev and Carter talked about the need for leaders to lead their
citizens toward solutions that were at once more noble and practical, it
becomes obvious that there is another way to move forward. For as both
men identify what national leaders need to do, they seem to convey a
fundamental sense that the people really do get it - that the people are
waiting to be led in the right direction. And so perhaps this is one of
those rarest of occasions when many of the world's citizens are ahead of
their leaders. Perhaps this is one rare moment in time when the people
get it but the political leaders don't. Perhaps this is a time when the
people need to make their strong feelings known - and lead their leaders
into doing what is right. …
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