Nicaragua's next generation: Leaders or serviles?

Nicaragua's next generation: Leaders or serviles?

By: Cristiana Guevara-Mena

There is something that we, the Nicaraguan youth of all political persuasions, have not understood, or that is not very clear to us. According to the Old School, taught to us by our predecessors, it’s necessary to be loyal and unconditional to a so-called leader or party, even having to stoop to a level of undignified submission in order to climb within the structures of the party and to achieve a relevant position in the institutions of the country. However, how feasible is this form to create leadership? Are our ancestors creating thinking leaders, or just robotic and servile entities, faithful to the will of their superiors?

We have inherited this vice from the current political participants in our country, many of whom have held office for more than fifteen years and confuse political leadership and party discipline with servility and submission. As a consequence, we understand these bad customs as our only reference for behavior; this disorients our actions and decision-making.

Let it be understood that the goal of party discipline is to achieve standards of behavior according to the political objectives and tendencies of the party, for the benefit of its members and of the nation. On the other hand, we understand that political leadership means recognizing in one person the qualities and special talents needed to guide for the benefit of the nation. It’s not an inheritable asset, nor a personal company, but a responsibility of public service.

In order to be a real political leader, one must have a clear notion of these concepts, and not confuse them with canine loyalty. This implies having enough knowledge, conviction, and courage to take risks, defend one’s own ideas, and work with others as a team to accomplish an objective.

It’s because of this that we, the young party members of the right and left, have been used as cannon fodder, as packs of hounds trained to attack; we are sent to protest in sit-ins, to act as delinquent mobs, to pray at the roundabouts, to saturate plazas, and to fill in the spaces of a television commercial. The worst part is that, lacking our own criteria, we are easily handled to vote in favor of or against a candidate in election season.

It’s essential that we the young people get educated by our own means in subjects that develop our criteria, so that we arrive at our own conclusions. With this, we will be able to make our own decisions, and take our own actions, with the creativity and imagination that will really make a difference. It’s necessary to fill ourselves with all sorts of information and develop a study habit. We must understand that knowledge is our best ally and that it feeds our individuality as human beings, not to mention enriches us as political subjects.

With an invasive, gangster government like the current one, it’s necessary to perform in a new, agile, and imaginative manner, to avoid repeating the mistakes of our political forefathers, because repeating those mistakes will get us nowhere. We must wake up our minds in order to be leaders and to think for ourselves: It’s the only way to provide evidence of the miserable morals and internal corruption of authority, so that we can challenge the authority from the inside with real and serious arguments. Let’s not look ridiculous to the media by doing sit-ins without continuity, by doing marches that accomplish nothing other than obstructing traffic, or by forming mobs that are nothing more than delinquents let loose. Leadership is in our capacity for taking different, rational and timely decisions.

Our current reality of political parties presents us with old and opportunistic men at the top who will never give us space, and to think that they will give us space because we are the next generation is dreamy and naïve. Therefore, we must represent something different, hit the table, impose ourselves with irrefutable ideas, and protest against the current system. Let’s not allow the mediocre, archaic and traditional behaviors to overwhelm our personalities if we become new politicians. The ideal way of thinking for us is to educate ourselves to develop criteria and character. It’s the only way to generate positive and substantial changes in politics, and above all, in our lives. There is no other way.

http://www.nicaraguadispatch.com/news/2012/08/nicaraguas-next-generation-leaders-or-sycophants/4879