-By Virgil
(Lanka-e-News -20.Nov.2024,11.00 pm) “He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.” - Leonardo da Vinci
Charisma: some are born with it, others develop it over years. Those who are born with it, over the passage of years enrich it further, beyond ordinary men's ability. Some physically fragile men and women are extraordinarily charismatic; Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa are two outstanding examples. Charismatic leaders lend strength, stamina and sustenance to dying movements and entities; they drive and push their followers and disciples, even along the ground, to the ultimate goal.
But the one fundamental quality of all charismatic men and women is that they never rest. They give rest to their followers, but they themselves hardly find time for such a luxury as rest and leisure. Didn't Thomas Edison, American inventor, say that 'genius is one percent (1%) inspiration and ninety nine percent (99%) perspiration'?
There is no doubt that the National People's Power (NPP) would not have won either the Presidency or the Parliamentary Elections without Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the top of the party. AKD is the driving force behind both victories. Ever since the end of the Aragalaya-22, the build up of the National People's Power could be described as meteoric. Its emergence as a very credible alternative to the status quo gained momentum from day in the wake of the Aragalaya-22. What the average voter could gather but very badly missed by the status quo politicians was the relatability factor. The NPP and its leadership headed by Anura Kumara Dissanayake as a whole, could relate to the issues; it could relate to the hardships of the people and above all, it could relate to the average voter wholly and completely. AKD did not have any competition in that domain.
How did AKD build up and enhance such a powerful and forceful persona in such a short time. Usually, charismatic leaders, whatever his or her consequential conduct is, spend no time on living on regrets. If a particular project they have undertaken has not produced the desired results, he does no waste time and energy on self pity; he does no waste time on blaming others. He gets on with the next item on the agenda. Living in the past is one luxury a charisma-rich individual would never indulge in. Taken in such a challenging context, charisma becomes not only a mere adjective one gives to a unique leader, it is the lifestyle of the leader in focus; it is the outer reflection of a more profound core of the man or woman. When the man moves even one inch, his charisma glows.
People cannot help but notice this palpable character of the individual; and they respond to it in the most positive and constructive way possible. That is precisely what happened in the last elections Sri Lanka held recently. AKD's charisma spoke at the Presidential Elections; I'm not talking about election orations; I'm talking about the way in which AKD ran the entire campaign and how the people responded so splendidly to his entire strategy, his tactics and his very persona. Very rarely are we blessed with such authentic men in our midst, especially amongst political leaders.
Yet, are we jumping the gun here? AKD and the NPP ran a unique kind of an election campaign and brought about magnificent results. They have not produced any results at all as far as what they promised on the election platform is concerned. Yet it is too early for any results, for that matter.
Nevertheless, the results of the two elections did not manifest themselves by accident. Years-long hard-work; not accepting a 'no' for an answer; motivating those who occupied the lower tiers of the organization and launching and following it through to the end with the same degree of enthusiasm and determination have generated this journey whose very steps and leaps have found equal or more falls and setbacks. When everything else fails, man's charisma has stood steady and firm. The followers first and the people at large secondly responded to the leader with equal dedication and commitment. 'Trust' the most significant element that exists between a leader and the led was established through this long and hard road.
When the people trusted AKD, with the same vehemence and intensity, they rejected his opponents without any hesitation. Both Ranil Wickremasinghe and Sajith Premadasa played their conventional game. Big rallies, television advertisements etc. But they could not match the NPP's ground game. For a successful ground game, the party must have vibrant and educated ground operators. Both NDF and SJB did not have that kind of operators on the field. They seemed to have outsourced the ground game to outsiders whose emotional and intellectual commitment to their respective causes was next to zero.
Why couldn't Ranil and Sajith build up such an organization which stood to attention when they decreed. They are not charismatic leaders. The aura that surrounded AKD could not be detected anywhere near these two gentlemen. Despite the fact than both Ranil and Sajith are originally UNP stalwarts, they seem to have learnt nothing from Ceylon's GOP's leaders, especially J R Jayewardene.
Entrenched in their own egotistical trips, Ranil and Sajith were too big for themselves. Handing the party's machinery to their close buddies and family members, their approach to electioneering got stuck in the muddy terrain of envy and internal disputes. The second and third tiers of the two parties led by Ranil and Sajith lacked stomach and guts to tell their leadership what was going wrong. They themselves were sold on the false images created by their respective media campaigns.
Long before the election date, they had already allocated the ministries and high level government jobs to their friends and family members. Absence of charisma in both Ranil and Sajith made it impossible for the grassroots to repose any 'trust' in the campaign they were running.
While such a confused state was causing gradual decline in the popularity in their parties, Anura Kumara Dissanayake did not waste any time to lead his party by example. Proper delegation and distribution of work, identifying the right person for the right job, creating an enormous amount of work for his grassroots, coming out with the right word at the right time and the right place, AKD's efforts were eventually validated by the voter. The combination of all the factors that are mentioned above went to work and produced a charismatic leader in Anura Kumara Dissanayake. It was not done in one month of one year. It was done over a long period of time. That amount of charisma was a product of hard work rendered by AKD ever since he took over the leadership of the JVP after the departure of Somawansa Amarasinghe.
What awaits one year's hence, one does not know. I am not a clairvoyant and do not pretend to be one either. But all signals are pointing at the right direction. AKD and the NPP can just do justice to their own party symbol- the Compass (Maalimawa). It seems to be an accurate navigational instrument.
The writer can be reached at [email protected]
Virgil's Collection
https://www.lankaenews.com/category/21
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by (2024-11-20 20:04:38)
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