in the name of ‘loyalty’

[mariashamshad]

Why do leaders not see the folly of making decisions that alienate them from the public, their own supporters and from reality? The answer lies primarily in not having people around them who can question their authority and show them the long-term destructive impact of their short-term skin-saving tactics

From the top man to a peon, bootlicking is the meritorious way to acquisition of position. When the major criteria for obtaining a position becomes either your ability to protect the interest of your appointees or to become adoring fans of the rights and wrongs of the men in power, a culture of sycophancy breeds and multiplies. This culture eventually becomes such a toxic dissolver of trust and respect that it eventually destroys indiscriminately those who created it and those who are forced recipients of this political mutation of insecure leaders.
From security to economy, the government is running like a ship without a captain, going round and round in circles with the danger of going under at the mere hint of further instability. Whether it is the appointment of the head of NAB or the appointment of an assistant in a ministry, nepotism and cronyism is the substitute for professionalism.
Like leaders, like followers. What happens at the top happens at the bottom as well. While ministers are busy filling up posts with their own kith and kin, people below are also following suit with using their connections to the big guns by shooting through all rules and policies and promoting relationship-based hiring to the hilt. The current scandal in the foreign ministry has set new standards of corrupt mismanagement in recruitment from the top to the bottom. With 300 vacancies to be filled up in this jobless era, this ministry has become an ideal spot for corrupt opportunists to bulldoze all professional decorum.Leaders of wisdom always keep a devil’s advocate in their team who can show them the other side of the picture as well as choose people on merit even if it means taking them from the opposition camp. The classic example of Obama choosing Hillary Clinton as the secretary of state is an example of merit ruling over personal preferences. Such sagacity can only come from sincerity of intention and action. With insincerity comes insecurity and insecure leaders neither have the confidence to question their own thoughts nor have the courage of doubting the faked adulation of their loyalists. This deceptively cloaked loyalty eventually proves every insecure leader’s nemesis.