Opinion: Leaders – by divine right or by the people’s choice?

via Opinion: Leaders – by divine right or by the people’s choice? – NewsDay Zimbabwe April 3, 2015 by Fr Oskar Wermter SJ

YOUNG men and women joined forces for the liberation of the country in the 1970s, not just “as a sound career move” for their personal benefit, but to transform the land of their birth for the benefit of all on a universal scale.

The tragedy was that the fighters thought they had achieved their goal when the colonial flag came down and a new one was hoisted. This was only a signal for another “freedom campaign”, not by force of arms, but by hard labour. They thought they had done their part and could now enjoy their prize money.

This is the mentality of many of our leaders of whatever party up to the present day. Being a politician is just another way of making a living.

You don’t need a vision or creative ideas beyond that. You just need connections and be loyal and devoted to the party, faction or political boss.

Power is the name of the game. That is all. Is it? Power to do what? To achieve what goal? It is remarkable that the party programmes in this part of the world are quite unexciting. They seem to promise mostly the same, without, however, showing how to achieve it.

“Employment for all!” How? No one knows. In recent faction fighting, the fight was not about programmes and political options, economic blueprints or reforms, but about power and positions.

Power is just a means towards an end. It is not an end in itself. What would be an end to strive for?

Sharing the land with all who have the skills to use it productively for the benefit of all.

One party may want to do that through government and common ownership. Another through the market and private ownership. We need Members of Parliament able to hold their own in a fierce intellectual debate, disputing with the best experts in the field, not to win for their own benefit, but to rescue the many who suffer, motivated by the desire for justice and moved by compassion.

Where do we find such leaders? Among those who appoint themselves by using sharp elbows and “connections”? Among “self-made” men and women whose concern is only about their own selves?

Some politicians claim to have been chosen by God, and their PR agents talk as if “the divine right of Kings” which went out of fashion at the French Revolution (1789) was still in force.

We should warn anyone that when making such claims you will be found wanting.

Divine justice sets extremely high standards in looking after the sick and the poor, widows and orphans, the neglected and underprivileged.

Compassion is not a virtue of hard-boiled power-mongers. Do not have the cheek to “take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain” (Ex. 20: 7).

Do not claim to act with God’s authority. That is impertinence, the talk of fools.

The feudal system claimed that Kings were chosen “by the grace of God”.

This political philosophy was grossly abused. The people (in France, the United States of America and elsewhere) swept it away, and declared themselves the sovereign owners of the State. Today they choose their leaders and give them the power to rule through the democratic ballot.

This system, though open to abuse too, has done comparatively well.

The people elect leaders, not to be their owners and overlords, but their servants who act on behalf of the voters who have empowered them and remain the true sovereigns.

Its greatest virtue is that it limits power (“separation of powers” as demanded by any modern constitution).

The revolutionaries, suspicious of the feudal “divine right of Kings”, opposed the Church. Now most democratic countries stick to the separation of Church and State.

So where is this God today whose authority some of our leaders are abusing to buttress their own power? Nowhere. It is a false concept of God.

Arrogant political manipulators claiming divine support simply do not know what they are talking about, and are far from the truth.

Leaders who have true faith respect people as children of God, honour their dignity as persons, and obey the divine commands and moral laws.

They see themselves as servants of the people and know themselves to be responsible to the Creator for the welfare of the people in their care.

If politicians were to become truly humble workers at the service of the sovereign people, they would have to undergo a complete transformation.

If there is no such complete turnaround, that will be the end of the story, cynical as we have become about politicians.

It cannot and must not be the end of the story. Easter which we celebrate this week is a new beginning. We live in hope. Life is change and transformation is possible.

Rule by popular participation is not an idle dream. We can produce food, process our minerals, increase power generation, we can maintain our roads and public amenities.

We can provide enough water and get rid of rubbish and sewage.

But we need leaders with the will to do it and with clear objectives. Not leaders who, when told the bus terminus in Mbare is dilapidating, say they have never seen it and don’t know about it.

This country is in our hands if we receive it humbly as a gift for which we are responsible to our Maker.

Fr Oskar Wermter SJ is a social commentator