Arts, Britain, Economic, Government, Politics, Society

Transformational leadership is needed for a re-moralising of politics and society…

A NEED FOR THE MORALS OF POLITICS TO BE RE-EXAMINED

Intro: The desire for transformational politics is high given the moral challenges of today

We often hear people say that politicians are ‘all the same’, which infer a general objection to our technocratic, managerial political culture. During 2013, figures from outside the Westminster bubble unearthed a public yearning for leaders with the moral and ethical clarity to face many of our present woes.

The greatest need for moral leadership is at its peak during times of economic scarcity. The financial crisis of 2008 and the years of austerity that have followed have returned to the fore the ethical questions that were too often set aside and ignored during the pre-crash era. Political and economic questions such as, ‘How should limited resources be allocated?’, ‘What constitutes the good society?’, ‘What are the values that should underpin our economy?’, or, ‘Can individualism and the common good be reconciled?’ The public disillusionment with our political leaders and what their parties stand for can partly be explained by their direct failure to address these issues more convincingly. When politics is reduced to a game, and when party strategists continually seek to outmanoeuvre each other for short-term tactical advantage, it is unsurprising that the public turns away. The frequent cliché that they are ‘all the same’ is not an attack (as is often thought) on a perceived lack of policy divergence, but on the managerial and technocratic culture that political parties embody.

Behind such public apathy and disillusionment, there is a craving for answers to the moral challenges of our time and for national leaders who can at least attempt to provide them. The recent death of one of the world’s most respected statesman, Nelson Mandela, has made this even more so.

Noticeably, however, one of the trends of 2013 was the emergence of leaders outside the political circle who have shown considerable moral guidance. Pope Francis, for example, has revived his Church’s spiritual fortunes by reorienting it away from the conservative obsessions of same-sex marriage, abortion and contraception and towards issues of economic equality and social justice. Pope Francis has made a number of emblematic gestures since becoming Pontiff last March, including humble acts such as carrying his own suitcase, living in a modest hostel as opposed to the rich grandeur of the Vatican palace, the embracing of a disfigured man, and has communicated his vision of a church ‘of the poor, for the poor’. The moral denunciation by Francis of ‘unbridled capitalism’ has resonated all the more as a result of his church’s changing stance and position. After decades of steep decline, church attendance among Roman Catholics has risen significantly across the world, including in Britain too.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who was enthroned two days after the inauguration of Pope Francis, has, over the same period, reaffirmed the Church of England’s status as ‘a defender of the most vulnerable.’ He has openly condemned the coalition government’s welfare cap on benefits and for making children and families pay the price for high inflation, rather than the government. Mr Welby has denounced the usurious lending of payday loan companies and has been equally critical of banks in their desire to continually seek what is ‘legal’ and never what is ‘right’. Like Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury has demonstrated his Church’s values through deeds as well as words.

One need not share their faith to respect the moral clarity that both religious leaders have brought to issues of economic justice. There have been others, too, such as the comedian Russell Brand, who provoked a remarkably successful debate with his insistence that the solution to deepening inequality and rampant consumerism has to be primarily ‘spiritual’ and his declaration that profit is ‘the most profane word we have’, commanded public attention for almost a fortnight in a way few politicians can.

Whilst not standing for public election, neither the Pope nor the Archbishop of Canterbury faces the same kind of struggles to reconcile competing interests as many of our politicians must contend with. The political class can learn, though, from how they have engaged with fundamental questions and how previously dormant debates have been actively revived.

Some of our more thoughtful MPs from across the political spectrum have recognised the need for a different kind of politics. Jon Cruddas, Labour’s policy review co-ordinator, for example, called for a ‘reimagined socialism’ in his George Lansbury Memorial Lecture in November. Mr Cruddas called for a type of socialism that is ‘romantic, not scientific; humane and warm; passionate yet humble’ and one that ‘pushes back against party orthodoxy, careerism and transactional politics’.

The re-moralisation of our politics and society remains a deep desire five years after the financial crash. In leading that transformation, we still await the politician who can inspire and provide the transformational leadership many people are now demanding.

 

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Government, Russia, Society

The attack in Volograd raises concerns for a peaceful Winter Olympics in Sochi…

Intro: The real threat to the Sochi Games is not a Western boycott but an Islamist terror attack

The run-up to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, which start in February, has been mired in controversy for months. Increasing the minds of politicians and athletes has been on whether they should boycott the Games in protest over Russia’s increasingly harsh treatment against homosexuals and lesbians.

The devastating suicide bombing over the weekend in Volograd, in southern Russia, is an instant reminder that the real threat to the Sochi Games is not a Western boycott but an Islamist terror attack. The blast at a railway station, which has killed at least 18 people, was not the first in Volgograd. In October, Russia identified a woman bomber from Dagestan as being responsible for a bus bombing in which five people were killed. Dagestan is one of a patchwork of small, mainly Islamic, autonomous republics in the Caucasus.

Russia has reason to be concerned for Dagestan is almost as unstable now as neighbouring Chechnya was in the 1990s. Although Russia battled a separatist insurgency there, Chechnya has never been entirely pacified. To add to the charge that Sochi is more of a threat from radical Islamists, rather than matters to do with sexuality, the leader of the Chechen rebel Islamists vowed in July to stop the Games from proceeding over the bones of its ancestors, or over the bones of many dead Muslims. The language used by the Chechen rebels is disturbing for athletes simply wishing to compete in the Games for medals.

So far, though, nothing has happened in Sochi, and the militants seem to have selected Volgograd as an alternative – maybe, because it is the nearest largest urban location north of the Caucasus.

For Vladimir Putin, he will deal with the terrorist threat by tightening a formidable range of security measures already in place around the Olympic village and event locations. Mr Putin will want to honour his previous pledge when he proclaimed in advance that the Sochi Games would be ‘the safest Olympics ever’.

Politically, whether Moscow can ever restore a lasting peace in the North Caucasus is highly doubtful. Russia simply does not have the manpower to keep all the republics in lockdown at the same time. Nor is the policy of periodically replacing stubborn local leaders with more adaptable ones necessarily an effective one.

Was Tolstoy right when he wrote that Russia is paying a delayed price for those colonial 19th-century wars which have saddled Russia with lands that it can neither absorb nor relinquish? Violence now seems par the course for radical Islamists in the Caucuses, if not in Sochi, then elsewhere.

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Foreign Affairs, Government, Lebanon, Middle East, Politics, Syria

The assassination of Mohamad Chatah: Lebanon’s moderate voice has been silenced…

QUAGMIRE OF SYRIA

Mohamad Chatah, the former Finance Minister in the Lebanese government of Saad Hariri, was assassinated yesterday in a huge car bomb blast in Beirut. Lebanon has lost a courageous intellectual and a fervent interlocutor for moderation who has regularly spelled out the extreme peril his nation faces as the civil war in Syria continues to polarise the Lebanese people.

Mr Chatah was a prominent blogger and user of social networking sites. Just hours before his death, he used Twitter to express his grave premonition that Lebanon was heading back towards the abyss. He tweeted: ‘Hezbollah is pressing hard to be granted similar powers in security and foreign policy matters that Syria exercised in Lebanon for 15 years.’

As a leading Sunni, Mr Chatah had followed the hard anti-Assad line being pursued by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It should not have been difficult, even if not agreeing with everything he positioned himself on, to recognise that he saw clearly the dire peril his nation was facing. Mr Chatah’s analysis was that the war in Syria, which has already claimed 120,000 lives, has gone on too long for the regime of Bashar al-Assad to be restored to its previous dominant position. Because of this, the preferred outcome for both Iran and Hezbollah, he said, was for the war to continue indefinitely.

Mr Chatah’s vision was of clarity and pragmatism. He also saw for Lebanon the implications of how great a disaster such a stalemate would be for his country, suggesting it could not hope to avoid being dragged in. As a consequence, he believed, along with other patriots, was that Lebanon would suffer another bout of destructive civil war, similar to the one that lasted from 1975 to 1990. His violent assassination is undoubtedly another fatal step in that direction.

Following months of frustration and numerous setbacks, a peace conference on Syria is set to open in the Swiss town of Montreux next month. Hopes for success at the talks may be slim as the intensification of the war continues. Whilst both sides are seeking to maximise their positions in advance of the summit, the outside world must owe it to Mr Chatah and his beleaguered people to do far more in bringing Syria’s civil war to an end.

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