Tech and life

Just a quick thought on political power and its abuse today. I don’t think many would dispute the view that political leaders cling on to power once they get it and, left unchecked, will usually long outstay their welcome. We’ve seen this recently in Tunisia and at present in Egypt as the former presidents finally get the message that they must move aside in favour of democratic reform. Many other countries, including for example Zimbabwe, are suffering under the dictats of leaders who just won’t let go of the levers of power. And democracies aren’t immune to this either. Certainly here in the UK we’ve had our share of leaders who have clung on to power for too long.

That’s why I’d like to see fledgling democracies and those advocating democratic reform to adopt fixed terms for their political leaders. I’m not a great lover of the US political system but I do think their policy of a maximum 2 terms of office for the President is a very sensible idea. Lets face it, if a leader can’t put in place his policies and define his legacy after 8 to 10 years then perhaps he should be stepping aside anyway.  No one is indispensible.

So if anyone from Egypt is reading this or indeed anyone who may be involved in a future fledgling democracy or campaigning for democratic reform, think very carefully about how long you want your leader to serve, and make quite sure that a fail-safe mechanism  is in place so they step down when the time comes.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Drop a comment below.

Heard about this site on the Net at Night podcast a couple of weeks ago. The Obameter from the St Petersburg Times is tracking the US President’s 510 campaign promises detailing promises kept, broken, stalled, in the works and compromised. Well worth bookmarking and following.

After almost 3 weeks in office, 7 promises have been kept and 1 broken. Of course, the interpretation of whether a promise is kept or broken differs for people of different political persuasions and may also depend on the particular political bias of the publication. However, I think it’s a great idea to help track the President’s progress over the next 4 years and make him more accountable. I only hope that the UK media can adopt a similar approach after our next general election, whenever that may be.

I’ve seen this kind of optimism before. When Tony Blair stepped into Downing Street in 1997 as UK Prime Minister, there was a tremendous feeling of excitement, hope and expectation. I remember watching him greet the crowds on Downing Street and thinking, hmm will he ever be this popular again?

As it turned out he wasn’t, and I hope the same thing doesn’t eventually happen with Barack Obama as the hope and expectation turn to reality. More than ever, America needs a strong leader who makes good decisions over the next 4 years and I really hope they’ve picked one. For me, it would break the mould.

I can remember four decades of UK prime ministers, and I can’t really stand back and say, ‘Wow he (or she) did a really great job and has left the country in better shape’. All have made some poor decisions in office. Yes, sometimes they stumble on problems of their own making, and sometimes as with 911, an unexpected global situation arises which has to be dealt with.

From a UK perspective, I really hope Obama’s different and that after 4 years, we can all look back and say, ‘Wow, he did a really good job’. Time will tell. I wish him well.

Any thoughts?

Picture credit: Steve Rhodes