Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Aug 24, 2006
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Aug 24, 2006 |
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Opinion
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People Columns - Impressions Talented leaders
Aren't they also ordinary mortals, endowed with inborn tendencies and skills? What prominence was given to the recent piano recital of Ms Condoleezza Rice in Kuala Lumpur! If Ms Rice is good at playing an instrument, Dr Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia can sing. During a fund raising campaign in Malaysia, he and his wife sang a ballad by Frank Sinatra, and thrilled the audience, raising huge amounts for charity. Once, when rains threatened a prayer rally in Ukraine, Pope John Paul II who was leading the assembly started singing `rain, rain, go away ... ' in a clear voice! It was quite unusual when a communist leader in China sang a duet with one of the three tenors, the opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti, in Beijing. Such informality is not common in authoritarian regimes. If these people only sing, Mr Nelson Mandela dances! He joined a big dancing crowd in Trafalgar Square, London, in celebration of the establishment of a multiracial democracy in South Africa. Likewise, Mr Kofi Annan did not mind playing the banjo drum in a memorial meeting in New York. Some years ago, the then Japanese foreign minister and US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, went a step further and enacted a play on stage, during a retreat at an Asean conference in Hanoi, impressing delegates and dignitaries with his histrionics. Jimmy Carter wrote novels; Ms Benazir Bhutto attempts poetry. And, whoever knew that Bill Clinton was so good at playing the saxophone! Hence, the skills of a statesman need not be in oratory and eloquence alone. The leaders can also be versatile!
K. Gopalan
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