Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Politicians should go to school

Politicians are employed to manage our society. Before they are given the job there is an interview process that is called election campaigning. This is where they show us their resume outlining their experience, education and ability to do the work.

At the interview they promise us the world; how they are going to grow the country, increase jobs, improve quality of life and standard of living and make life better than we have it now. Since this is what we badly wanted and deserve we consulted with a majority of our colleagues and then we employ them for a five-year term, based on the interview process. But the minute we said “you are hired” the process stops for the next five years! There is no annual evaluation yet there are periodic salary increases and there is certainly no way to say, “you are fired!” Our fate is in their hands unless there is a coup.


Politicians’ decisions affect us in everything that we do. Their decisions affect how much we spend or save, whether we work or stay at home, how much we earn or how much salary increase we get, how much food we buy and what type of food we buy. They decide if we buy a car and what type as well as our choices of gas to put in the car.

Their decisions affect where we live, how we live or whether we live at all. Whether we send our children to public or private school, whether we grill every nook and cranny of our house or leave our doors open. We depend on their decisions to help us decide our quality and standard of living, whether we see a medical specialist or use home remedies. It does not matter what we want to do, they are involved in our existence.

With that kind of responsibility, being a politician is not an easy job or one for the faint-hearted. It requires people who not only have brains, but who insist on using it productively. They should be people who are part of the solution and not part of the problem. To be a politician requires the types that are creative and skillful at overcoming challenges, the ones who can manage resources efficiently and see opportunities that are hidden to the naked eye. Politicians must be selfless, compassionate, honest, brave, caring, decisive and meticulous. They must govern with impartiality and consistency.


Politicians can destroy a society or make it abundantly better and all this can be achieved by the stroke of their pens or the words out of their mouths. We therefore should have a lot of confidence in them when we elect them. Confidence alone is not enough however. We need to prove to our self but more importantly let them prove to us that they can manage the job that they are hired to do. You wouldn’t employ someone for five years without checking him or her out thoroughly and making sure that they are qualified, would you? So why do the same for our politicians.

To hold office, politicians should not only have high moral and academic qualifications, they should qualify with high standards as well. They should be seen as good examples for others to follow and their performance should provide inspiration for others aspire to. They should not go into office because their parents were there or that they are financially endowed through relatives or business. Popularity, physical beauty, age or pay back should not be considerations either and neither should friendship.

Holding political office should not be the point of self-actualization on the hierarchy of needs, desired only because one has achieved a satisfactory level of wealth and social status. It should be like any other career, a deliberate and strategic move that is supported by investments in experience and education.

Unlike moms or dads who learn through nature and nurture, politicians should qualify educationally just like doctors or lawyers. There should be a school for politicians where they learn the meaning of governance. The subjects covered should include standard English so they can read, speak and write properly; public speaking to allow them to deliver their speeches and presentation effectively; accounts to give them an understanding of assets, liabilities, budgets, profits and losses; finance to show them how to raise, distribute and manage money; morality so that they can uphold the acceptable standards of conduct; decision-making to make them more decisive, and negotiation so that they can achieve domestic and international justice and fairness for the people.

No politician should leave the political school unless he/she has learnt leadership so that they can achieve extra-ordinary results for the country by inspiring the people; history so that can learn and appreciate their past and use it to help the future; technology to know how to use computers, and management to know how to unify the differences in people towards achieving common goals. Politicians must also learn creative thinking, which is needed in times of challenges; sociology to know about the behaviour of individuals and groups, and economics to learn how to use the scarce resources of the country to satisfy the wants of the people. The learning should not stop here however as just like doctors or accountants, politicians engage in lifelong learning to keep abreast of the latest developments in their profession.

I believe that politicians should be specialist at what they do and should be placed in areas that they have a comparative advantage. This holds true, unless you believe that it is OK for the plumber to run the electricity for your dream house or your lawyer should remove the cancer in your brain. If it is not OK for the mechanic to unclog your artery then why put unqualified politicians in places to decide your fate and the fate of your future generations?

One of the pillars of economic growth is education. An educated society will become one that is more productive. More production means more resources available to government to satisfy the wants of the people. But if you have uneducated politicians managing the wealth of the nation then one of the main purpose of education would have no value.

Political parties should set high standards for their members, especially those who aspire to lead and manage our country. If we cannot get a school of politics then qualified people should give courses to those aspirants. Uneducated politicians with a good economy is a recipe for disaster but with a bad economy it is a one way journey to a catastrophic Hiroshima destruction.

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