World political, religious and business leaders have rarely shown signs of serious weakness as we are witnessing today. We had various occasions to discuss the effect of weak business leadership in the current economic crisis.
Not only have business leaders been unable to foresee the seriousness of the current world economic slowdown but, when it hit us, it became evident that they were incapable of dealing with it. Despite the huge bonuses business leaders paid themselves, it was ultimately the taxpayers that saved the day.
The "cash for lobbying scandal" that has recently hit the British Labour Party is another example of why ordinary people are feeling increasingly detached from mainstream politics. Three former Cabinet members, Patricia Hewitt, Geoff Hoon and Stephen Byers were exposed by Channel 4 journalists as soliciting substantial amounts of money in return for opening doors in the corridors of power at Westminster. Mr Byers was caught on camera saying that he expected a fee of up to £5,000 a day for lobbying with current Cabinet ministers on behalf of private businesses.
This scandal followed closely in the steps of another scandal exposed last year by The Daily Telegraph regarding the excessive reimbursement claims made by British MPs for expenses connected with their official duties.
A few months ago, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon were plotting a coup to overthrow their Prime Minister so that "working class families could have a better future under a new leader".
Today thousands of British workers are losing their jobs every week as a result of the global recession, while their democratically elected representatives board the gravy train that keeps delivering the goodies for themselves and their cronies.
The Catholic Church leadership is also facing a tough time as its most senior hierarchy fails to address effectively the crisis of confidence that many Catholics are experiencing in their leaders. The letter that the Pope sent to the Irish Catholics to apologise for abuses by the Irish clergy in the past years may have been well planned and enriched with empathy and articulate prose, but it did little to convince many faithful that this was more than a damage limitation exercise.
The only silver lining in the current crisis in world leadership is the determination of the independent media to expose without any inhibitions the sleaze of political, ecclesiastical and business leaders. The journalist of Channel 4 had to pose as an executive of a lobbying firm to uncover this blatant abuse of power.
Had he not taken this risk with the consequence that it carries, there would not have been the "smoking gun" evidence to force these politicians to disappear from the political scene. Similarly, had it not been for the Murphy Report we would never really have had much proof of how the lives of thousand of Irish children were ruined by selfish clerics who abused the trust that families put in them. Many rightly conclude that, had there been more brave journalists around to investigate these matters, then we would see more than the tip of the iceberg of the abuse of power.
There are of course notable exceptions to the current crisis of leadership in the world. The determination of President Obama to give a fair deal to 32 million Americans, who up to these last few days could not get much needed medical treatment because they were too poor, is indeed admirable.
Even if the health reform proposals finally approved by Congress are a watered down version of the original more radical proposals of the President, they are still a major step forward in making American society that much fairer This was not achieved thanks to the selfish interests of politicians who opposed the reforms because they were more focused in keeping their seats in Congress and the Senate, but despite of them.
As long as leaders hold on to power either because they are in charge of an authoritarian institution or because they manage to exploit the inertia and indifference of people, we will continue to have weak leadership. Yet, there has never been a greater need to start from scratch to rebuild confidence in our leaders by reviving values that are no longer fashionable.
If world leaders adopt a sense of fairness in the way they treat those whom they lead, we would have made a good start in rebuilding confidence in a difficult global scenario.
jcassarwhite@yahoo.com