In the readings, Heywood mentions theories of leadership out
of which one school of thought suggests that leadership is a personal
gift. I happen to agree with this
notion. It is extremely vital for the leader of the state to have the
capability of being able to govern a large group of individuals. If he does not
have that capability, the people can rise against him even if the bureaucracy
is on his side. An example of this was during the French Revolution. Even
though Louis iv was ruling France as an authoritarian rule, the people still
stood up against him which led to the greatest, bloodiest revolution known in
history as the French Revolution. Louis lacked the ability of leadership. He
was not able to win over the people of his country. The only way such a rule
can work is if it becomes authoritarian. Which eventually, the people rise
against when they can not stand it anymore.
Heywood mentions leaders who have genuine moral authority
such as Nelson Mandela and Dala Lama. This type of quality is also so necessary
to have because their influence actually developed a sort of ‘cult of
personality’ amongst the people. They not only respect being ruled by these
people, but also look upto them in terms of moral guidance.
Modern political psychology supports this notion as
‘personality’ is something deeply explored. Research shows the importance of
personality and how biologically there are a certain types of personalities
that are actually made to ‘rule’ while other personalities are such that would
rather be ‘ruled’.
Like, Aristotle famously put it ‘ Men are marked out from
the moment of birth to rule or be ruled.’
Leadership may include a sociological, organizational,
political phenomenon but in my opinion the one most essential is when it is
viewed as a ‘personal gift.’ If we look at Pakistan as an example and the
leaders we have had. It is clear that the only thing they have working for them
is their ‘charismatic personality’. While some people would not see Altaf
Hussain’s personality as charismatic but what one needs to understand is, that
his hold over MQM and essentially all of Karachi, clearly he has loyal
supporters which is only possible through his personality, how he managed to
gain the support of many people and how he manages to shut down the entire city
of Karachi at his will. It is not the ‘policies’ or the bureaucratic form of
rule that gain him this support, but the ability and charisma of personality that
the people see in him.
5 comments:
Its true that personality traits do play important role but don't you think how they are portrayed towards us matters more because through practice they can show us what we want to see though those traits were not present at the first place but when we are seeing it they are there.
Regarding your comment of Mr Hussain, I think he has more than his personality or 'charisma' going for him. For starters: fear. His grip over the party and its city of function is significantly, if not almost entirely, dependent on this most critical source of human motivation: fear. Secondly, he is a man blessed with an extraordinary ability to organize. The party, despite all its elements that we may disagree with, is a concrete structure with very well defined roles for its members, a structure utilised brilliantly by the party's leader for his objectives. Altaf Hussain utilizes fear and structure to meet his purposes. The charisma he had was lost when he left the country.
I agree with Arsalaan's comment that fear is an essential component of Altaf Hussain's ability to gather thousands of people while him being away. It is also rumoured that blackmailing practices occur frequently around the Jalsa time, whereby people are not only kidnapped but taken as random from their families and only returned if family members show up at the Jalsa.
Furthermore, I feel charisma is parallel to persuasive speaking abilities and as far as Altaf Hussain's speaking ability is concerned it earns him more shame than support .
Therefore I would not classify Altaf Hussain as a charismatic leader.
(taken as ransom)*
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