The next generations of Southern Sudan
what are the political elements that will be passed unto us by the current politicians?
By Chuei D. Mareng
August 23, 2006 — It is believes that a creative leader will design, articulate, and put into an operation the community’s vision that will help to bring about a new and better society. As such, the expectations for effective leadership have become the main focus of society affairs. This is due to the fact that current community environments are complex and diverse that requires great vision. As such, all people in society are expected to have moral ethics set that up a vision by which success for all can be achieved. This means that leaders will use their skills in communication, collaboration, and community building to ensure that their visions become a reality for their success in society. Leadership is viewed as an act of identifying important goals and then motivating and enabling others to devote themselves and all necessary resources to the achievement of their plans. In this regard, it is obvious that effective leader will have elements such as: moral ethics, initiative, sociability, courage, vision, and integrity in order to lead their community. However, it seems that most of these political elements are not presented among the Southern Sudanese Politicians and I do wonder where the future of the next generations will be.
Moral ethics
In the complex world of human beings, leaders are perceived as those who have excellent communication skills and who can provide accurate information to foster understanding and maintain trust, and confidence among the community. As such, leaders must reach out to others for support and assistance, building partnerships, secure resources, and share credit for success and accomplishments within their society. Thus, it is always assumes that moral ethics implies the norms under which a person grew up. Indeed, conflicting norms are unavoidable when a person takes a position that will be in opposition to that of the majority of community members due to cultural ideas of norms. It is the point of view that this problem of norms is often an issue in society and as a result, community leaders manage changes in society through effective relationships with every one in the community. Therefore, leaders are generally seen as those who set a moral standard for ethical behaviors. They seek diverse perspectives and alternative points of view. They encourage initiative, innovation, collaboration, and strong work ethics within their society.
Initiative
A leader is always seen as a key figure in an organizational arena, due to the fact that the head of an organization is presumed to be smart. In this regard, one could claim that leaders always build institutions that endure the societal problems. They usually create a capacity within the society to achieve and sustain their visions. It is obvious that people are motivated by the desire to achieve or maintain the various conditions upon which these basic satisfactions rest, and by certain additional intellectual desires. Basic satisfaction is referring to as the preliminary principles that leaders use to make what they have planned concerning their society. Leaders do create a space where dialogue can occur, where truth can be discovered, and where day-to-day decisions can be made that could be in opposition to other people’s desires. This is due to the fact that society cannot live without opposition, but opposition should be in a social context of the community.
Sociability
In the world of social beings, the goal of cooperation is one of the most important things for leaders to achieve. This is because leaders usually embraced and adhered to comprehensive planning that improves the community’s effectiveness. Leaders always used data to determine the present state of the society, identify root causes of problems, propose solutions, and validate accomplishments. Therefore, leaders’ cooperation with the environment becomes the most important tool for winning community’s appreciation. It is believe that this approach allows leaders respected responsibility, accountability, and manageable of resources effectively and efficiently. It usually happens that community leaders recognized the importance of moral standards and the significance of assessments. As a result of assessments, people will always speak of leadership characteristics in a form of praise or blame, but leaders’ encouragement keep them going ahead with their goals.
Courage
Encouragement from one’s own interest is the most fundamental way of developing an effective work relation in the community. In this case, leaders always embraced, they keep community informed, they plan for changes, and they recognized that everyone may not support visions. To this extent, leaders usually work to win a support and are willing to take action in support of their visions even though in the face of their opposition. It is obvious that a position to one’s own courage is subjected to opposition from others because people’s interests are not universal. This is not belonging to Southern Sudanese only; the situation is common in any working environment. It is clear that a position in the community structures that the leaders occupied and the practiced of their leadership functions are essential for the interpersonal activity of running a society because their vision encourages them to do so.
Vision
It is often said that one has to think outside the box, to have a good vision and to come up with effective strategies that will help advancement of the leadership visions. Effective leaders are viewed as the core of every successful in community. Effective leaders collaboratively created a vision and established a climate for people to reach their highest level of achievement. Leaders usually communicated their visions and direct all the applications of success towards achieving their goals. They mobilized resources and promote collaborative activities among community to achieve the society’s goals. As such, effective leaders recognized their own strengths and attracted knowledgeable people to enhance the society’s capabilities. They cultivated and focused on the strengths of colleagues to achieve the shared vision. They welcome changes as an opportunity for growth rather than an obstacle to be overcome, and they lead people through the uncertainty of a changing society. Therefore, individual always strive to make self-assurance for effective leadership in which society would work efficiently. I do personally believe that effective leaders will always seek counselling and advising from the knowledge and experiences of others while they are free to offering their own expertise to those who seek it.
Furthermore, effective society leaders always develop the skills and talents of those around them, making community members efficient in their works. Leaders are capable of leading change and helping others through the changing process. As such, leaders are engaged in sharing a decision making with the community and every one in society. Community leaders are both the guardians and reformers of the society system, and they also ensured that all groups are engaged in a common goal and are moving in the same direction. Therefore, effective community leaders create partnerships with every one in society to achieve a common goal. It is my feeling that community leaders do recognize that leadership skills can be learned and they have an obligation to establish and nurture strategic activities that will make certain individuals in the community to develop leadership skills. I do see that effective community leaders should share leadership responsibilities throughout of all the levels in the society structures. It is my concept that leaders fostered and supported a learning community that promotes the continuous growth and developments of individuals who seek an acknowledgement and a share responsibility in achieving the society’s common goals.
Integrity
In the world of the society’s advancement, communities are seen as places where a moral being could be built so that people who are nurtured there will lead the next generations. In this case, effective community leaders are models of moral ethic and integrity to lead their community morally. This means that leaders always projected integrity by promoting and supporting an environment where community tries to do what is right. In this regard, leaders always demonstrate encouragement in difficult situations and provide a model of moral leadership for other individuals to imitate. I do believe that leaders usually seek to make a difference in the lives of community and impart a philosophy that positively builds relationships based on trust; thus improving the quality of life for all individuals in the society environment. Moreover, community leaders should have a focus and purposeful integrity, and should always be consistent in what they say and what they do. Their moral ethics are placed on a heavy premium for presenting knowledge as a symbolic and a linguistic structure for achieving success in their society and coming generations.
It is in my opinion that the above mentioned characteristics are the most required political elements for effective leaders despite the implications that they may pose in the community leadership. In any context, an effective society leader is the person who has a vision, clearly defined roles for follows and realizes the human elements in the society environment for involving others in decision-making and understanding the notions of power and culture. The main purpose of the policy is to assist communities with their responsibilities to establish and maintain an updated written policy. However, most Southern Sudanese people like to criticize others, but they do not offer exist or alternative strategies. This means that we Southern Sudanese are inconsistent with ourselves in whatever we do because we pretend not to mean what we say. One great philosopher a long time ago said that: “We cannot raise our children as eagles, but expected them to act like parrots.” This is because children always do follow their parents’ behaviours and without a proper direction for the next generations of Southern Sudan, the mess is not yet over in Southern Sudan.
I was really touched by Dr. John Garang’s speech in which he said that: “We need a New Sudan, where there will be no second citizen.” Indeed, Garang’s vision was consistent with other great leaders who have fought for injustice in this world. The one leader with the same vision whom I will use here is Martin Luther King Jr. who clearly said that: “I have a dream; I have a dream that this nation one day will be united, where the equity will flow like the water in the river.” This is a kind of leadership we need in Southern Sudan so that the next generations will be inspired, but not a leadership without a proper direction. This would allow me to say my opinion that a desire to have power without vision, courage, and moral ethics is like throwing a hook into water where you would not know what kind of a fish you will be catching. Therefore, I would recommend that every Southern Sudanese must think twice about the common goals and where the next generations will get a sense of unity and political elements for community leadership. Tribal politics will not take us any where, but destroy the vision of the Southern Sudan. No society will ever progress when there are no role models that the next generations could follow their foot steps.
By Chuei D. Mareng is a Sudanese student living in Canada. He can be reached at [email protected]