Not been putting up posts for a long time because I was having an rethink of the whole dictatorship thing. I feel the main problem with a dictatorship would be the problem of succession. Once I pass on, who will chose the next dictator? Will I have to do it before I die? And also, will he or she be as loyal to their country as I would have been? People get seduced by power, and don’t like giving it up.
In a democracy, atleast the people will have no one else to blame for choosing bad leaders. So maybe I will have to run the elections after all, and maybe I will need your votes. However, I have realized that what we need is a leader. Not a politician who no one trusts, not someone who is chosen because he is the best candidate. What is required is a leader who’s only objective is to better the lives of people. We need someone with vision and the passion to convince people of his vision and get their trust to go through with the changes required. We should be proud of our leader, and he should make us proud of our country. Gandhi, though I am not defending or judging his policies, at least inspired the whole nation. For that matter, so did Hitler.
The leader's focus shouldn’t be on only vote-getting tactics or reservations. Setting up primary education is great and stuff, but the leader’s role shouldn’t be limited to that, or balancing the budget, or setting up nuclear power plants. He should also have a wider social message of love and peace and co-operation. And with the message and vision, he can gain the all important trust and love of the people.
I think I can be that leader. It might take a little longer to achieve than becoming a dictator, but with the long term good of my country in mind, I think I will do that. I may not have become President of college, but there’s hope for me yet!
How is it going to be different from the present government? Well, I would have had years in the private sector before I become the President or whoever is in charge and I will have the opportunity of implementing the best practices I have learnt into the government. Of course, once I am in charge too, don’t expect any drastic changes. It will take years of dedicated hard work before I can streamline and downsize the government machinery to an economically viable level, with quasi-privatisation with government supervision in all non-key areas and so on.
The list of reforms needed are too long to put down here right now. Ofcourse, managing human resources is the most important task of any company, and once government employees (my future employees) are made accountable for their actions, you can expect a world of change.
I am already working on an alternate to farm subsidies, reservations in private colleges, and carbon based fuels… Before long, I will have the answer.
P.S. Though I did mention that the focus shouldn’t be only on vote-getting tactics, I didn’t mention that it should be avoided altogether. Taking the Tamil Nadu chief minister’s promise of giving a colour tv to every household, I am in discussions with Steve Jobs to strike a deal for an iPod for all of you out there. A show of support at the earliest will ensure you one…
