An advice for bankrupt leadership

If a dog dies hungry on the banks of the River Euphrates, Umar will be responsible for dereliction of duty. (Hazrat Umar ibn Al-Khattab) As scenes of the iron man of Libya and Africa being dragged, ridiculed, tortured and brutally killed flashed around the world, I felt pain and anguish. Despite his limitations and idiosyncrasies, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was once the leader of Libya, who enjoyed respect in Africa and Pakistan. It is a fact that his name still adores the cricket stadium in Lahore and that a lot of Pakistani boys draw their names from the word Gaddafi. While working on a research paper, I happened to go through extracts of Andrew J. Dubrins book, The Complete Idiots Guide to Leadership. And while further searching for traits of great leaders, who have trekked this arduous path before our times, I was amazed by one personality, Hazrat Umar ibn Al-Khattab (RA). I was quite enthralled and disappointed -- enthralled because Hazrat Umars (RA) personality is a beacon of leadership and disappointed because Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Muammar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak and Bashar Al-Assad could not use this beacon of leadership, despite a ready access to Islamic history. The aim is not to write an epitaph on Gaddafi, but do some soul-searching and find some clues of bankruptcy of the present-day Muslim leadership. Since I had done some work related to the situation in the Middle East, I am reproducing an extract from my article published in TheNation on March 30, 2011: Welcome to the Greater Middle East, where every existing fault line is being shaken to create anarchy; some as old as the ones left by the Lawrence of Arabia and others created by self-confident Gaddafis and Mubaraks. The leadership should have understood that the common man cannot be suppressed for too long, especially in this time of information and empowerment. You can stuff billion of dollars in Swiss Banks and build villas in every continent, but you cannot buy peace and security for you and your people. Where are the $10 billion left by the Shah of Iran, and where will the $60 billion of the Mubarak family end up; these will never go to the Iranian and the Egyptian people. These will be tagged as 'frozen and used by the Western banks and governments to play the game of chaos called the 'long war. Gaddafis billions are already being used against Libya by the European-American colossus to arm the rebels and run expensive media campaigns frightening the Arab elite that they may be next in line. Based on the analysis of bankruptcy of the present-day Muslim leadership and the trends of peoples response to dictatorial policies in the Islamic lands, I have developed a 'guide for the Muslim leaders of our times and offer it to the present and future leadership of the Islamic world (pun not intended). So, here it goes: i In this time of information and empowerment, you cannot befool the people for a long time; people are intelligent, sensitive and their threshold of patience should not be tested indefinitely. i Leadership is responsibility, responsibility and responsibility, and nothing else; if you think that leadership is a privilege, you are at the wrong place and on the wrong side of history. i The State that you lead and its wealth is actually an ammanat and belongs to the people, and even a penny taken from its exchequer should be spent on the people; you can stuff billion of dollars in Swiss Banks and build villas in every continent, but you cannot buy peace and security for you and your people. In case of doubt, visit the graves of Marcos of Philippines and Shah of Iran. i Your genuine assets are the ones which stay inside your country of birth, any investment or money siphoned to foreign banks would never be yours, and it may be used against you and your country men (Gaddafis opponent were armed with the same money that he had stuffed in foreign banks). i Think of why Nelson Mandela is respected around the world and Hosni Mubarak is being tried in the Egyptian courts, and why is Musharraf unable to return to Pakistan? Who has more respect at the end of the day, Nelson Mandela or Shah of Iran? i Islands of prosperity built by the elite in a sea of misery may last for days and years, but you cannot live with this arrangement forever. If you have hundreds of guards and a cavalcade of vehicles to protect your movement, but still cannot go to a paan shop and chat with a common man on the street, there is something seriously wrong in your governance.yo-ur time may be running out Courtesy Wikipedia, a quote from Saeed M. Mohtshams research paper titledVision and Visionary Leadership - An Islamic Perspective: on Caliph Umar's Rule, says it all: "He used to monitor very closely the public policy and had kept the needs of the public central to his leadership approach. As second Caliph of Islam, he refused to chop off the hands of the thieves because he felt he had fallen short of his responsibility to provide meaningful employment to all his subjects. As a ruler of a vast kingdom, his vision was to ensure that every one in his kingdom should sleep with a full stomach.He also knew that just having a vision is not enough, unless it is supported by effective strategies. He did not only have a vision; he truly transformed his vision into actions. He used to walk through the streets almost every night to see if there is any one needy or ill. The last and not the least, I will put in a quote from Gibbon to conclude the paper: Yet, the abstinence and humility of Umar were not inferior to the virtues of Abu Bakr: His food consisted of barley bread or dates; his drink was water; he preached in a gown that was torn or tattered in 12 places; and a Persian ambassador, who paid his homage as to the conqueror, found him asleep among the beggars on the steps of the mosque of Muslims. The writer is a freelance columnist. Email: yalla_umar@yahoo.com