Kuwait Times

Published Date: June 19, 2007
By Fouad Al-Obaid, Staff writer

If one studies history and the civilizations that preceded us, one will most certainly not come across common names. However leaders on the other hand, do end up in the pages of history for several reasons. They do so when their failure is total and their incompetence is obvious to all. Just as much as they do so when their bravery, their tactics, their leadership capability along with their capacity to move minds and hearts in the most turbulent times is put to test and they succeed.
 
Today the topic that I would like to touch upon is exactly that, leadership capabilities. In the Arab World we seem to be lacking true leadership capabilities at least in modern times. For our history has proved to be filled with leaders that have conquered a vast chuck of the known world at the time.
Back in the day where we were still desert nomads, it was a constant struggle for survival that awaited us daily. However as we moved into a more sedentary life, we became less inclined to natures survival of the fittest.

Today, we need to find a source of inspiration in leaders that will set the path for a renewed socio-economic development scheme. We need people that have visions, leaders that are willing to fight in order to craft reality out of a vision. If one looks at the development of Qatar and Dubai, one can credit their leadership with bold vision which has projected their otherwise semi-arid desert lands into global hubs where transport, trans-shipment, and multinational corporations have established their home base in.
 
Their push to develop new standards in many fields is astronomical, especially if one considers the rather short period of time in which they managed to pull their stunts at! A simple note of comparison would be between our respective airlines. Kuwait Airways has about 17 aircrafts and has been around for 50 years. Emirates which has been around for 22 years, has a whopping fleet of 104 aircrafts and Qatar airways which has been around for a mere 14 years, has a fleet of 57 aircrafts with a series of orders for 108 more crafts!

Aircraft fleets aside, the lessons that need to be extracted from such success stories is that visions can become reality and in that field we are either lacking vision or having a hard time executing it properly. In either case, we clearly are doing something wrong. For despite the fact that we were impeded in our growth by the invasion which not only cost us in physical damage but affected society physiologically, it nevertheless should no longer be an excuse.

If we are capable of funding half of the world in diverse projects through the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development we should be able to do so in our own country! Talking about the KFAED, when we spend billions on developing infrastructure projects across the world, we can at least hire a professional advertisement firm to create the ads that will be aired internationally, for certainly the old obsolete ads that are currently aired on both CNN and BBC are a disgrace!
 
We today need leaders that are willing to perhaps sacrifice themselves for the better good of society. Reforms are never easy and it takes a strong leader to execute them. One thing that really needs to be done is to reduce the overall workforce working for the government. A greater push should be emphasized on developing skills that would enable Kuwaitis to work in the private sector. It's fine to have the cheesy ads encouraging people to challenge themselves, but if they lack qualifications, they can challenge themselves all they want without achieving any tangible results!
 
Last but not least, we should work on ensuring that knowledge and make sure it is spread and encouraged. It's one thing to send students abroad to study with the aim of them brining back home a degree, and its completely a different thing to expect them to have actually learned a few things other than nightclubs, alcohol, and all sort of "sinful" things!
 
For thoughts and comments fouad@kuwaittimes.net