THE TWISTER
BY BRIAN LIGOMEKA
When some political lunatics are hurling insults at the clergy or religious groupings, I always weep for them. Such insults are the genesis of their downfall. Romania, a nation located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, had a tyrant named Nicolae Ceausescu, who in his dictatorial fantasy thought he could deal with the clergy the way he dealt with all his critics. He learnt a fatal lesson.
Let me tell the story in this way. It was in March 1989 when a parish priest Laszlo Tokes in Romania faced eviction from his apartment. His crime was that he had earlier preached against the policy of ‘systemisation,’ thus the restructuring of towns and villages which was ordered by the Romanian autocratic president Nicolae Ceausescu.
The priest refused to vacate his house and his action provoked the wrath of the dictator’s secret police, the notorious Securitate. The row between the tyrant and the man of God broke out and as expected the man of God had the full backing of the laity.
As the row continued, by December 1989, it was not only his parishioners who were guarding his house; members of the general public also joined the protests and the surrounding streets were swelling.
What followed over the next few weeks, overshadowed Pastor Tokes personal story of eviction. Uncontrollable mass protests led to the downfall of the once-mighty Ceausescu regime.
Guess what happened to the dictator? He attempted to flee the country but was arrested and shot by a firing squad together with his wife, Elena. Don’t ask me why Elena was shot dead because the answer I can give is that some First Ladies are cruel, greedy and nefarious. Some dictators even become worse because of the venomous pillow advice they get from their materialistic bed mates.
The ranting of some dictators at public podiums does not only bring me memories of the Romanian incident but also the fall of the self-imposed ‘African King of Kings’ who is none other than the longest serving leader of the Arab world, Muammar Gaddafi. Like few dictators that are remaining on the continent, who when intoxicated with power, arrogance and egotism, assume that they cannot be smoked out of their state houses Gaddafi, had similar illusions.
Though the writing was clear on the wall that his popularity has waned, Gaddafi vowed that he would never resign from his position or surrender.
The story of his end is well known. He was killed like a rabid dog. His own citizens called him ‘a rat’ as they fished him from a drain where he was hiding.
It was unbelievable. The same Gaddafi, who throughout the mass protests of his people was defiant, long at last, asked for mercy when he was captured. “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” he pleaded.
His calls for mercy landed on deaf ears. He was killed in a disgraceful manner with some reports claiming he was kicked by civilian-turned rebel fighters who captured him and a shoe was waved in front of a wounded Gaddafi, which is considered a sign of greatest dishonour in Libya.
But what really triggered his downfall? The arrest of a human rights activist Fethi Tarbel in Benghazi! It is a lesson to dictators that continued arrest of critics can trigger their downfall.
The fall of dictators has a pattern which is triggered by the masses loss of confidence and trust in them and their autocratic policies. That is followed by their ranting against criticism and opposition while overestimating their importance. Foolishly most of them believe that with the security forces on their side, they cannot lose power hence statements like those uttered by Gaddafi prior to his downfall. He was once quoted as saying: “I would hunt down the rats (protesters) inch by inch, room by room, home by home, alley by alley.”
What he forgot was that like all dictators, though he was in power, he had lost legitimacy. Dictators can be in power without public legitimacy and trust of their people, hence their tact of trying to consolidate their power through arrests of opposition leaders, human rights activists and other critics.
I hear when the dictators learn that opposition figures and critics have been arrested, they celebrate as in their political foolishness they assume they have weakened the opposition and suppressed dissent, not knowing that the arrest strengthen those in opposition.
It is not surprising that at the climax of autocracy, instead of governing with their own wisdom and using sound advice from their ministers and strategists, dictators govern the masses with arrogance, brutality, anger and cherish in being with fed poisoned lies from their minions. In terms of succession, their strategy is handover power to their brothers, sons, sisters and cousins.
When you see a leader being so arrogant and overconfident just know that his downfall is eminent. Professor Gavin Kennedy of Edinburgh Business School, in his book Influence observed: “Arrogance, overconfidence, defiance and non relevant memories of past victories over rivals are so common in the political end games that signal the demise of men and women who overstayed their welcome that it is a wonder so many wise, experienced and capable people suffer the public ignominy of a boardroom coup. If they did see the writing on the wall, why did they not quit while they were still ahead?”
While Professor Gavin wrote his book in 2000 as a course material for students pursuing MBA studies, his observation is very relevant. Who can dispute that arrogance, over-confidence, defiance and non relevant memories of past victories over rivals are so common in the political end games that are signalling the demise of leaders who have overstayed their welcome.
We have politicians who think they are still relevant just because they won last elections. They always sing of their few achievements of the past. Arrogance has blinded them so much that they do not even realise they are on their way to their political deathbed and nobody who is suffering at the moment because of their reckless policies is interested in their so-called past achievements.
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