One of our current affairs recently was pertaining to the question 'Whether leaders should be judged according to their personal life?'. I shall voice my personal opinions rather theoretically, as I am not exactly knowledgeable in this field and don't exactly have much of particular case evidences.
I think that a leader should, and must be judged according to his personal life. The issue we are dealing with here is the issue of respect. Leaders are here to lead, but think about it- why do the people allow themselves to be led. The reason is respect. Leaders are people who have shown in their records and portfolio to be outstanding and above other people one way or another. You would definitely not see a random coffee shop waiter to be Singapore's next Finance Minister. It just doesn't make sense. Why doesn't it make sense then, you say. The reason is, once again respect.
In order to lead, and convince the people to let you lead them, you must gain their respect. This is why we follow our parent's advice and directions. They have spent so much effort in order to bring us up and support us, hence we have a certain respect towards them. Similarly, we respect leaders as they, during elections have presented themselves to be charismatic, capable, reliable and worth trusting. Their portfolios are decorated beautifully by the abundance of certificates while their reputation builds upon it. This is why we trust our leaders- they are accountable.
Then, the issue of personal life comes in. It definitely affects your accountability. How would you feel if a policeman who drinks in his police car orders you to stop your car for speeding? Naturally, the level of respect and trust is lowered, and you probably would not even care about him. If a leader goes around toying with stocks and loses thousands of dollars because of it, and goes on to talk about his new financial plans of Singapore, would you believe him? No, you would not. Society is all about the people. We, as the common citizen trust people who are wiser than us common people. When these 'cleverer' people fall down to standards of common citizen or worse, then how is he valuable as a leader anymore? He is not fit to lead anymore; it defeats the purpose of such intense selection of leaders like him.
Hence, leaders must be judged according to their personal lives as it reflects their accountability and their leadership qualities. These reflections affect the way people see him, and most importantly- the level of trust between him, and the public.
I do agree with your essay completely. You can improve your essay by not just explaining about leaders, but explain about how you would judge anyone in general, and then draw analogies and link it back to how we would judge a leader.
ReplyDeleteThat aside, my personal take for this topic is that this issue deals a lot with whether the leaders can practice what they preach, which was not mentioned explicitly. It would never make sense for teachers to stop students from gaming if they themselves game in their office.
I agree with your essay on that respect is a crucial aspect of a leader. However, I think although a leader should be judged by his personal life, his leadership skills is THE thing that makes him a leader, and therefore should weigh more heavily in whether he is a good leader. French President Nicholas Sarkozy is the first president to divorce and remarry when he's in office, but his approval rate was not heavily affected because he was still an effective leader behind the desk, regardless of what he does in the bedroom.
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