MDC in a leadership trap

18 Nov, 2018 - 00:11 0 Views
MDC in a leadership trap Nelson Chamisa

The Sunday News

Nelson Chamisa

Nelson Chamisa

Micheal Mhlanga

A classical twist of narrative took centre stage this past week. What some literature fanatics would call a humdinger of events revealed the true colours of failed leadership and a distant imitation of who a “leader” aspires to be.

This has been said, and will always be said, Nelson Chamisa is nothing close to a doyen of the working class struggles in Zimbabwe. In fact, he is exactly the reason why the working class’ struggle will crumble because Advocate man-of-the-cloth has made himself the “struggle” and the struggle “him”.

Why do leaders known for integrity and leadership engage in unethical activities? Why do they risk great careers and unblemished reputations for such ephemeral gains? Do they think they won’t get caught or believe their elevated status puts them above the law? Was this the first time they did something inappropriate, or have they been on the slippery slope for years?

In these ongoing revelations, the media, politicians, and the general public frequently characterise these leaders as bad people. Simplistic notions of good and bad only cloud our understanding of why good leaders lose their way, and how this could happen to any of us.

He makes a lot of costly blunders, sufficient enough to confirm his political immaturity. From his harangue of power and how his supporters selectively choose to call it a democratic transition in opposition, to a myriad of extreme, untrue and unsubstantial populist rhetoric, Advocate-man-of-the-cloth never ceases to amaze in pulling theatrics every time he stands at a pulpit.

It’s like every time Advocate-man-of-the-cloth opens his mouth, he deducts his credibility. He reminds me of the Eddie Murphy’s 1 000 words drama. Left with a thousand words in his life before he loses speech because of too much lies, Murphy was forced to recalibrate his morals of utterances. To any sane man, MDC has a leadership vacuum — a trap, they may not see it now, but I pray it won’t be late.

From “ndozvidira jecha” to “they are stupid”

Many leaders get to the top by imposing their will on others, even destroying people standing in their way. When they reach the top, they may be paranoid that others are trying to knock them off their pedestal. Sometimes they develop an impostor complex, caused by deep insecurities that they aren’t good enough and may be unmasked. To prove they aren’t impostors, they drive so hard for perfection that they are incapable of acknowledging their failures. When confronted by them, they convince themselves and others that these problems are neither their fault nor their responsibility.

Or they look for scapegoats to blame for their problems. Using their power, charisma, and communications skills, they force people to accept these distortions, causing entire organisations to lose touch with reality.

Nelson’s narrative shift in referring to his religious supporters who stormed the streets of Harare on 1 August should never be intelligently analysed as a product of games theory, or political strategy, it deserves nothing of such critical and well thought-to-be-wasted analysis — it is simple lack of leadership assets. There, I said it, he has no leadership traits, their congress should start thinking of a leader, not a young man still lounging in the glory of campus excitement. No leader throws his followers under the bus.

At this stage leaders are vulnerable to making big mistakes, such as violating the law or putting their organisations’ existence at risk. Their distortions convince them they are doing nothing wrong, or they rationalise that their deviations are acceptable to achieve a greater good.

As Poiganto said in the classical essay of 1889, The frosted and feeble brains; “for many of us the idea of being a successful commander, leading the a regiment from peak to peak, delivering the goods quarter by quarter is an intoxicating one. It is a pattern of celebration leading to belief, leading to distortion. When you achieve good result, you are typically celebrated, and you begin to believe that the figure at the centre of all that champagne-toasting is yourself.”

Iqaqa kalizizwa ukunuka
Like other, more mainstream “superstars”, Nelson basks in a world of adoration and adulation. Mistakenly he is revered and has been made iconic. When everyone defers to you, when the room quietens as you walk in, you begin to believe that you are just that good, but more than this, that you are infallible. Humble you are not. It is this last, this sense of invincibility that provokes bad decisions and bad decision-making. People in this position, by definition will ignore offers of help, or disdain the need to join support groups for help. Perhaps truly great and sustained leaders must routinely be humbled in order to maintain their greatness.

On his way up, Advocate-man-of-the-cloth learned how to be egotistical, narcissistic and arrogant. He wears his successes as coats of arms on his sleeves. In politics, he paid his dues, moved up the ranks, and climbed the ladder of success — creating and cultivating the necessary relationships that would support him to achieve whatever his ego-driven desires needed to achieve: power, rank, status, control, recognition. And, to be honest, for political correctness, he knows how to mess things up well.

Being adept at relationships, he has used all his tools: false modesty, false intimacy, false trust, cloudy transparency, fake vulnerability, fake charisma, insincere charm, forced gracefulness and the like. Summarily, he is best described as a “false” leader. The downside or perhaps, his dark side-is his narcissism, his consistent need to be “on”, to play the role, to always be in the limelight, to wield his power, to be in control and be the centre of the struggle.

I sometimes try to understand him as a compensatory being whose actions are influenced by an inadequacy of social acceptance or unsure of it thus his unquenchable thirst for attention. People of his character, sometimes in a subtle way; more often, in a not-so-subtle way wake up and feel alone. They experience feelings of loneliness and deficiency that accompany the stark realisation that “the game is up” and their mask has worn thin and is disintegrating. Their personality costume covers but a skeleton; no meat and, alas, they begin to experience sadness, depression, self-hate, self-loathing and self-pity.

Before, the advocate took on a leadership role; he should have asked himself, “Why do I want to lead?” and “What’s the purpose of my leadership?” These questions are simple to ask, but finding the real answers may take decades. If the honest answers are power, prestige, and money, the man of the cloth is at risk of relying on external gratification for fulfilment.

There is nothing wrong with desiring these outward symbols as long as they are combined with a deeper desire to serve something greater than oneself, sadly that is not the case with the man who finds the underneath of the bus a residential space for those who believed in him.

For MDC, when their leader focuses on external gratification instead of inner satisfaction, he loses his grounding and so does the party. His religious supporters, drawing inspiration from him, reject the honest criticism that speaks truth to his power.

The Advocate-man-of-the-cloth has surrounded himself with people who tell him what he wants to hear. Over time, he will be unable to engage in honest dialogue; others learn not to confront them with reality. Nelson can avoid these pitfalls by devoting himself to personal development that cultivates his inner compass, or True North. This requires re-framing his leadership from being a hero to being a servant of the people he leads.

In the meantime, let us support his Excellency ED and his economic motives to better the loves of all average Zimbabweans.
Phambili ngeZimbabwe

Share This:

Survey


We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds