Man has suffered much in the evolution of civilization and for having good political system and as a result a good leader. Passing through the ages of tyranny, slavery, monarchy, dictatorship, socialism and capitalism, today man has got the core of a just system in politics that is the system of the people, by the people and for the people – Democracy. Democracy is an attitude, a behavior which a government and people get inculcated through a long political process, with profound thoughts, consciously and with much understanding. What do our leaders think? Do they feel the people would get more democratic by making long lines on polling booths while elections weigh nothing except more increase in the tension of the common people?
What the leaders have offered to the systems and people have not been very much satisfactory. Many of them, in disguise of guiding people, have been fooling them so as to enhance their own authority and thus highjack the system and people’s will and in true sense the so-called democracy.
Though in many societies it has been a fact that political leaders have led the people astray, in backward societies their actions are even more controversial. We can find the example in our own society. There are many leaders who lead not because they have the power to lead, but due to their social status. This is the reason that mostly landlord and industrialists become leaders, who belong to the upper class of the society and in fact that is the reason that they can’t understand or they don’t know the basic issues of common people. Secondly, they never have been institutionalized or haven’t been in political parties, they just consider individual benefits in their mind. They make such arrangements in the system that law and order can just benefit them! They violate the rules and regulations and use their authority to escape from punishment.
The lives of common people are spent in standing in a queue for getting a sack of flour. There are many examples of injustice, there is absence of law, bomb is free of cost, dead bodies are ruined, sexual harassment and abusive languages have become the order of the day, violation of merits and new formulae are developed to loot the people in order to fill some bank accounts. People need to realize all these facts and have to make sure that they are not continuously dodged by evil intentions and they do not become the part of the self-centered motives of some evil-doers.
“What does leader actually mean?” Generally, it means a person that leads; guiding or the directing head of an army, political group, institute or any company. A leader is considered the most essential person in any society. Just like a teacher that plays a significant role in the formation of independent, well-educated and modern society, a person who is doing his or her bit to nourish and train a person and make him ready to serve his community, country and his family through his contribution and assistance that he is making in the specific field. Likewise, leaders are here to lead their country and its growth by performing their duties with loyalty. These are the qualities of a true leader and the true image of leadership but in today’s societies it is very rare to find such a leader.
Living in a country and being a citizen every individual is aware of his country’s condition and a country can only be led by a leader. Everyone cannot be a leader; there are some qualities one must have to be called a true leader. A leader must have the caliber, the required knowledge that unfortunately some of our leaders don’t have. It’s a simple fact that if you want to do something first you have to figure out about that; a person has to have a proper knowledge to do so. It is the age of specialization. Every person must do what he is expert in, but unfortunately our leaders do not have even the basic understanding of politics. If the condition remains so, no doubt we will remain in darkness and in stone-age and will be deprived of our basic needs.
When we talk of a leader we imagine a person who leaves his everything for the sake of his nation, helps and supports the people of his country as his family members and does everything primarily 24/7, considers the grief of others like his own grief and considers service to fellow beings as obligatory, which Quran has cited evidently to us and restricted the leaders to follow them strictly in-order to remove injustices, prevailing miseries and poverty.
The most important point is that leader should regard leadership as a responsibility not pleasure attained through facilities and other luxuries. A leader should have proper understanding of the life of a common man and must understand the common problems of the common people. Leader should be a great thinker says Plato, it is really important because it is nothing else but thinking which makes us execute the action, and it won’t be wrong if I say that better thinking is directly proportional to the better action.
Once Tamburlaine was asked the secret of his consecutive victories, he told, “I am always at the front of the battle field confronting my enemies and leading my army, it is the reason that my soldiers never care about their lives; as they know that even their leader doesn’t do so, who the hell are they?” History is full of such examples for teaching us the lesson but we turn deaf ears and blind eyes to such examples.
A nation with its leader is a complete set of machine where the people are the main parts and leader is the main switch. If there is problem with the main switch, the machine shows no efficiency. The same thing is going on in our society too. Instead of solving and overcoming the difficult situations, they are busy to enhance their money and properties. They are totally lost in the taste of having more power, luxuries and making their status. They really need to change their attitude if they want to change the Afghan society and in the process the lives of common Afghans.