THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP AND THE SOCIETY

 IN THE ERITREAN POLITICAL STRUUGGLE

 ( BY EAIM revised 2/16/08)

       In our political world, government leadership serve citizens, political party leadership serve members, organizations serve grassroots. The citizens, members or grassroots may be free societies, people with the political power at their will and who are always listened and heard or sub-servants to their leadership, always follow orders, never have input in governance.

     Governments, political parties and organizations to reach the desired goal should possess the basic organizational characteristics:

A)   Stable relationship of leadership and citizens.

B)   A rough division of labor.

              QUALITIES OF LEADERSHIP

       At any political situation whether stable or unstable, it would be reassuring to know that a strong, intelligent leadership is at the helms of our nation or organization. Once Napolean was asked what distinguishes a great leader from regular politician, he explained that “it was not innate intelligence, but the mental power that is to concentrate on objectives for long periods without tiring.”

            Here are some leadership qualities stated by many researchers.

·        VISION-one of a good leadership qualities is strong clear vision and the ability

   to convey it. You need to understand where you want to lead your people, how you plan to get them there and the ability to communicate this destination to your people. The goal set by the leadership must be specific, realistic, achievable and measurable.

·        THEME- a theme is what people associate with, which in effective leadership will be the relentless pursuit of the vision. For example Nelson Mandella although he is associated with the liberation of South Africa his theme is about THE UNIVERAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS. Once his work in South Africa was done he continued to pursue ways and means to help other communities’ access these rights.

·        TRUSTWORTHINESS OR CONFIDENCE- people won’t follow you unless you have shown integrity and consistency. Developing trust, belief and confidence in the members and their abilities is essential. Leadership who never trust others will either try to do most of the work them-selves or minutely scrutinize the work of others. This will result in excess work- load which such leadership never be able to cope. Thereby reducing leadership’s own effectiveness.

·        CONSULTATION OR MODESTY-leadership should have the courage to delegate or consult. Knowing the members opinions on matters affecting working of the different division of labor is essential to make them feel that they are involved in decision- making. People perform their best when they feel that they are in a democratic situation with freedom to express their views. Appointed or delegated groups should be able to make their decisions without interference from the leadership.

·        COMPOSURE OR COOLNESS- ability of leadership to maintain their cool under most trying and adverse situations in work place will help them to provide strength to their people and boost moral. Good leadership doesn’t run around like the world is about to collapse every time there is a problem. The  attitude, should be “ we can work this out.”

·        COURAGE- mental and psychological courage to own responsibility for actions, inactions and decisions and to learn from past mistakes is a hallmark of any successful team builder.

              LEADERSHIP STYLES

    In the past several decades some experts have undergone a revolution in how they define leadership and what their attitudes are towards it. They have gone from a very autocratic approach to a very creative participative approach. Somewhere along the line, it was determined that not every thing old was bad and not every thing new was good. Rather, different styles were needed for different situations and each leadership needed to know when to exhibit a particular approach.

   Here are some basic leadership styles.

·        AUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP STYLE- is one in which the leadership retains as much power and decision making authority as possible. The leadership does not consult the people nor are allowed to put any input. Every body is expected to obey orders with out receiving any explanation. The motivation environment is produced by creating a structured set of rewards and punishments. This is supposed to be practiced in military organization.

·        BUREACRATIC LEADERSHIP STYLE- it is well known as “ by the books”. Every thing must be done according to procedure or policy. The leadership enforces the rules. In such a situation people usually lose their interest in their activities and duties and in their leadership. People do only what is expected of them and no more. There is no room for creativity growth and innovation.

·         DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP STYLE- is characterized by a structured, but cooperative approach to decision making. It is also called the participative style. People are well informed of what is going on that could affect their lives. The style requires the leadership to be a coach who has the final say. Democratic leadership can produce high quality and high quantity work for a long period of time. Team spirit and high moral is the manifestation of democratic style leadership.

·        LAISSEZ FAIRE STYLE- is characterized by the absence of any real leadership. Usually with no goals or direction. There is a state of confusion and lack of confidence in leadership. Productivity is usually low. It is said to be “hand-off style”. This may be applicable in highly skilled, experienced and educated society.

           THE ERITREAN EXPERIENCE

   Eritreans have been and are going on continuous political struggle for freedom and democracy since the inception of our Eritrean identity. Struggle asks organization and organization needs leadership and membership. It is beyond this article to give researched, reasonable of expert quality opinion on the history of Eritrean leadership and membership on the long struggle we are tiptoeing. But we would like to shed our decent observation.

   Eritreans fought chain of colonial governments for the liberation of Eritrea. We would like to classify it as pre- armed struggle, armed struggle, post armed struggle.

           The pre-armed struggle did seem to have neither vision nor the right theme. They were the Unity with Ethiopia proponents, Pro- Italia grouping, The Rabbita Al Islamia organization, Eritrea for Eritreans, Mahber shewate (party of seven)----etc. There wasn’t cohesive leadership, no common goal and no vision or theme, but miraculously enabled Eritreans to promote the struggle to an armed revolution.

             The Eritrean armed revolution had a clear goal and a theme. The goal was “FREE AND LIBERATED ERITREA” and the theme was “THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO SOVEREIGN ERITREA, TO ACHIEVE OUR GOAL WE SPILL OUR BLOOD”. The leadership from the very beginning was not capable of setting a clear plan of action and put the goal into vision with steps of plan of action to reach the goal. It was clear some groups in the leadership had hidden or ulterior motive which we think led us to bloody continuous civil war which helped the enemy to bleed us for unnecessary thirty years. We observed the leadership’s determination for domination in the Eritrean politics by all means possible throughout the armed struggle. Such malicious and connive attitude was tolerated by the fighters, because we had to look for the bigger picture that is vanquishing the enemy to achieve the goal and also of misunderstanding the hidden agenda of struggle for domination. Of course it does not mean there was no concern and objection by visionary fighters; some even gave their lives for it, but was only marginal.

             The current post- armed struggle leadership of sovereign Eritrea has neither a vision nor the intellect that Eritrea badly needs. There is no economic plan, but to depend on donor countries. No social interaction guidelines, but to ban and intimidate who ever raises questions. No national security rationale, but enslaving every physically fit Eritrean in the name of “national service.” No political discourse, but herding Eritreans in camps to clean out-dated guns to keep them busy when they are not busy.

             The famed psychologist Abraham Maslow is often quoted as saying “IF THE ONLY TOOL WE HAVE IS A HAMMER EVERY PROBLEM LOOKS LIKE A NAIL.” Regardless of the situation or circumstances Eritrean chain of command or leadership tends to utilize the same tool even though alternate tool might be more appropriate. Are we Eritreans having systemic weakness of leadership quality that we are not aware of? Who is to blame? We Eritreans as a society share it as a whole. We cannot shove the inaction to our fathers from generation to generation. Education is not knowledge, but action. Let us break the tradition “ZEBEREKE TSEHAINA- ZENEGESE NUGUSNA” (What ever shines is our sun- who ever reins is our king).

            The vehicles that could enable us to erect democratic institutions are conferences, seminars, workshops, forums---etc. The goal is democratic peaceful and stable Eritrea and the theme is, liberate Eritrea by all possible means. It requires all agents of change to be involved in innovative economic, social, political and military initiatives, based on shared values and objectives tailored to specific national and local situations. Effective civic societies, the media, political organizations, human rights group organizations, watch dog groups can enter into social, political dialogue and partnership to promote democratization, national reconciliation and peace building. Let us be all part of the solution of the systemic weakness of leadership quality in Eritrea today. Let us make the national congress for March 30/o8 called by the ENA a reality which is step in the right direction.

Glory to our martyrs,

WE struggle we succeed.

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