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A world burdened with petty leadership
In an age when the world needs intellectual giants and leaders of deep integrity, we are burdened with small-minded, self-interested and petty leadership, Acting General Secretary of Liberal International and former South African MP Gordon Mackay said on Friday.
Gordon Mackay addressing the crowd. Pic by Priyantha Wickramaarachchi
“Epitomised by Donald Trump in the US, but reflected in leaders around the globe including Duterte in the Philippines, Erdogan in Turkey and Orban in Hungry, with the ever-increasing illiberal governments in China and Russia – liberals could easily become despondent,” Mr Mackay said, delivering the 18th Dudley Senanayake Memorial Lecture.
He went on to say that what was needed was a reinvention of liberalism, which requires the dual reinvigoration of liberal leadership on the one hand, and refreshment of our ideas on the other. “In the first instance, we have a plethora of honest and integrous leaders to whom we can look to as guiding lights. Dudley Senanayake was such a leader. He taught us that successful leaders lead by example and must act with integrity. This means that liberal leaders must learn to be more honest with the electorate, not selling them a menu of hopes and dreams that cannot be achieved, or misleading the public on the complexity of the problems we face,” he said.
Mr Mackay said that Dudley Senenayake insisted on justice and fair play, had an unwavering belief in democracy and the rule of law, and an unbreakable commitment to human rights.
“Liberal leaders must therefore not cower to populist positions that seek to withhold the inherent human rights guaranteed to all peoples as part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We must work to fight any and all attempts that seek to create an “other” – and must assert, just as DS did, that all peoples have the right to dignity and respect, and that we are all more similar than we are different.”
The topic of the lecture was ‘Redefining Liberalism in the face of 21st Century Challenges and Opportunities: from climate justice to human genetics’. It was organised by the Dudley Senanayake Foundation in cooperation with the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung fur die Freiheit (FNF).