By Ven. Horowpothane Sathindriya Thera –
Ven. Horowpothane Sathindriya Thera
“Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” (Colin Powell)
“A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader,
a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)
“Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you do a job. That takes all of the good characteristics, like integrity, dedication of purpose, selflessness, knowledge, skill, implacability, as well as determination not to accept failure.” (Arleigh Burke)
There are many political leaders and heads of state around the globe today. Most of them for their own benefits and sake of their own families. It is rare to find genuine and honest leaders in the world today.
Compassionate and humanitarian leaders are very rare in this planet but NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER JACINDA ARDERN and VICTORIAN PREMIER DANIEL ANDREWS should be appreciated and respected the way and manner how they try their utmost to save their citizens from this dangerous killer which initially started in China.
Former president of United States of America named COVID–19 Virus as CHINESE VIRUS.
Even though officials and authorities of World Health Organization and certain countries attempted to investigate laboratories in Wuhan, Chinese authorities never allowed them to do it.
It is an inhumane and cruel act. This despicable act has destroyed millions of global citizens. Multitudes of both macro and micro businesses in various domains and departments have been completely devastated. Millions of employees and members of their families are in a desperate situation.
This act is a brutal mass destruction without any weapon, and it is beyond genocide.
Everyone is not a leader. Leaders should be genuinely equipped with true leadership qualities. Leader should be compassionate and humanitarian. Leader should be honest and sympathetic. People should follow the leader not by force or intimidation but by examples and respectable qualities.
We have learnt true capabilities and abilities of many political leaders and heads of state in many countries during this COVID-19 Pandemic challenging period. How they implemented restriction measures, rules and regulations. How they managed and provided social benefits towards public. How they assisted their business community and most importantly taking firm decisions and imposed the lockdown rules for the safety and security of citizens.
As I mentioned before New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Victorian Premier in Australia are the most compassionate and humanitarian heads of state and political leaders in the domain of democratic regimes. We should highly appreciate their commendable contribution and service. They are impartial and they are absolutely servants of people. They are practical and pragmatic. They say what they do, and they do what they say. They are totally accountable and chargeable. They are not superiors or kings and queens. They clearly know that they are elected by people and rejected by people. They are representatives of public.
They work for people. They serve for humanity. They are responsible for public. They are subject to prosecute. They are not above the law. They have no rights or any avenue to advise or influence any authority of the judiciary or justice.
They promptly make their crucial decisions and implement them immediately. We should salute these leaders rather criticize.
“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.” (Douglas MacArthur)
Even though both are political leaders, they do not do politics as heads of state. This is the classic and prime disparity between so called OUR POLITICAL LEADERS and HEADS OF STATE.
Hope and pray one day we may have such charismatic and humanitarian leaders for our future generation.
RBH59 / August 18, 2021
Leader should be compassionate and humanitarian
The hero doctor was punished for telling truth about coronavirus, and these countries are totally accountable and chargeable.
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srikrish / August 18, 2021
Rev Sir,
Thanks for giving us some classic definitions of leaders and leadership from Collin Powel to Roosevelt. However, these definitions need not merely be academic.
In practice, good leaders may exhibit some of these characteristics, but not all,
The people get the leadership they deserve and there are situational leaders, leaders emerge when the situation warrants. If I add, Leaders should be good managers.
We may never get ideal leaders; we have to be satisfied with the leaders and we have and use the next opportunity to send the rascals out.
The country should develop a foolproof system so that no politician could abuse his powers, but work for the common good.
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Ajay Sundara Devan / August 18, 2021
Ven. Thero makes two crucial points without mincing words, and he’s right:
(1) China has failed in its international obligation to allow WHO to investigate the Wuhan laboratory, and therefore is accountable for the immense suffering and destruction worldwide.
(2) True leaders quit playing political games once they become heads of state. They are not afraid to make tough unpopular decisions if they’re necessary for the well-being of the people. They serve the people – all the people – with compassion and integrity. They don’t hold themselves above the law and intimidate the judiciary in order to influence the administration of justice. Rather, they respect the rule of law and hold themselves legally accountable for all their actions. In that sense, Sri Lanka has never had heads of state, but only political rulers. …
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Mallaiyuran / August 19, 2021
We agree that PM Jacinta is a different soul. Men have different qualities; women have different qualities. New Zealand is benefiting from Jacinta’s feminine graceful qualities. We had Siri Ma O and Chandrika. Siri Ma O was worse than brutal men JR or Hitler.
The problem here is that PM Jacinta Arden is backed up by a powerful governmental machine behind her. If she wants, she can ignore the economy for a year or two and close the country to control the disease. For them additional lives can be saved only by closing the country. But, closing or not closing is not going to make any difference for Lankawe. It is forecasted & feared equally a famine condition can bring in deaths by hunger as much as Covid- 19 can wipe out by disease.
Hero Dutugemunu (Dutugemunu is not the King the Sinhala Buddhists think: he was a Tamil-Hindu) and Hero Hitler are depositing in billions, irrelevant of it being rain in the country or shine in the country. It can be Tsunami, or it can be Covid-19. They can fill up their pockets as long as Tamils are trapped in the net of Appe Aanduwa.
Viva Lankawe!
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Nimal / August 19, 2021
This is really what she did “Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you do a job”. She did not say I did. She said you did and I believe you do again.
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