El Presidente: Lee Kuan Yew
- Former PM of Singapore.
- A benevolent dictator & true leader who who guided Singapore from the dregs of poverty to being an Asian Tiger. Singapore for all intents & purposes is an INDUSTRIALISED nation.
Economic Czar: Manmohan Singh
- Current PM of India & former Finance (technocrat) Minister. The reforms launched in the 1990s have propeled India's economy into the top 20. Poverty still remains an issue but the progress made is phenomenal.
Foreign Affairs/Chief Diplomat: Nelson Mandela
- Well respected & liked. Almost a saint! For all the criticism, Mandela voluntarily left the S.African presidency after one term - which begs the question; was he a real African president? - which has endeared him to many around the world. It is this selflessness that gives him diplomatic heft.
Internal Affairs: Vladmir Putin or Rudy Guiliani
- Putin - Current President of Russia. Tough guy who will take care of any Mafiosi out there! Just don't ask how he does it! Not as a Prez but definitely a great guy for keeping crooks in check!
- Guiliani - Did wonders in New York. Showed real leadership mettle on 9/11 and its aftermath.
IT: Bill Gates or Sam Pitroda
- Bill Gates- Do I say?
- Sam - Genius who revamped India's telcom system in the 1990s & partially responsible for India's booming IT sector. Took a salary of $1/year!
- Warren - My hero....
- Bill - The Warren of Bonds
Transportation: Titus Naikuni or outsource to UPS
- Naikuni - Did a great job as PS until moi fired him over the radio. Naikuni responded with something on the lines of "Thanks to whoever fired me"... Hah, chutzpah! Prior to joining the government as PS, he was MD of Magadi Soda & currently CEO of KQ. KQ's profitability has grown exponentially during Naikuni's leadership.
- UPS - "Big Brown" is one of the world's largest logistics & transportation firm & has its own fleet of aircraft (235+ aircraft; compare KQ at 22), semi-trucks, storefronts & freight cars!
Environment, Water & Forests: Wangari Maathai
- Nobel Prize winner who REFUSED to take up a ministerial post when she felt the government's policies did not reflect her views.
- Has done wonders for Nairobi even with idiotic politicians trying to override him!
- A despotic guy but RESULTS...
- Former PS without political experience - a huge PLUS- thus trusted by Kenyans. He was the CEO of Transperancy International until he was made PS. Living in exile since he fears - rightly so - for his life were he to return to Kenya while michuki, karua & kibz are in power.
16 comments:
MMMM, thats an interesting team. None of this guys especially LK Yew & Putin are big on democracy. Dictators who have gotten results
i dont belive you coldi. i think every country must find a bearing on how to develop. In kenya we know our failings: 1. we must stop worshiping leaders. be they church leaders, political leaders, business leaders etc. 2. We must accept that we are already a nation with divergent communities. tribalism will take us nowhere. in kenya, leaders get corrupt knowing very well that they cant be touched since they 'represent' their tribes. that thing of 'we are being finished' will take us nowhere. in many occasions even in the private sector, leadership positions are given even to fools just because of their tribe. 3. We must show interest and concern over how we are governed. the apathy of most kenyans is a fertile ground for mismanagement. people cant raise a finger but they complain in the dark.
i agree some dictators have succeeded in developing their counties but for how long? will the economic well being continue well after they leave the mantle?
even in your list i have a problem. Mandela? the man is just hyped for forgiving the whites. how did he help the common black guy who fought with him in SA? during his time is when crime went up, and SA became the rape capital of the world while he spent his days posing for photographs all over the world!
Defence:- Osama bin Laden.
CT:
Vladimir putin? i don't know about that one. He just locked up the ceo of yukos oil, one of the most profitable companies in Russia!
Updates made directly into the blog entry...
Odegle - Hey, I can dream???? I like Naikuni but I am going by the best of the best esp PROVEN in politics.
Trust me... if Naikuni stands... I will be all over campaigning for that jamaa!
Anon - My original list had 4 politicians. 2 were elected (Mandela & Singh).
Putin was elected but that is debatable. No more a democrat than moi or kenyatta or nyerere or mugabe!
Yew - Well, he was no democrat! But did he produce results!!!
where would you place John Githongo on your list?
Odegle - My list is NOT tribalistic... I don't care where you come from but what you have done & can do...
Gates & Buffett - Americans
Yew - Singaporean
Singh - Indian
Naikuni & Mathaai & Githongo(inserted later)- Kenyans
Mandela - S.African
Putin - Russian
I was thinking about Hugo Chavez for Entertainment...
Which Kenyan would be for Sports?
I am not familiar with S.American politicians...
Anyone from Australia?
There is something in the book "Animal Farm" that goes like, "WE THANK BOXER FOR WITHOUT HIM WE HENS COULD NOT HAVE LAID EGGS."
Most "successful" leaders ride on the crests of waves :-
(a) that started long before they got into power;
(b) whose nature they are somewhat oblivious of.
A good leader is one who leaves a good wave to reach its own zenith, or at best FACILITATES. But he can't take credit for the wave per se...
toneloc - Haven't read Animal Farm in a while but Boxer was the hard-working horse... Napoleon was the greedy pig... U sure it wasn't Napoleon the hens are referring to?
Of course, Napoleon would be our kenyatta, moi & kibaki who expect "gratitude" for stuff they have nothing to do with!
In the bad old days, I skipped the first 10 minutes of news since it was all about moi...
Who gave a shit where & when moi went for a shit? But the PPU & KBC was all over the shit shitting.
I will give you my list of KENYANS. I would remove the requirement that ministers have to be MP's.
President:
Anyang Nyongo
he reminds me of Manmohan Singh. He's a smart, well educated techocrat who could really fix kenya. He just needs to get out of raila's shadow.
Minister of Finance:
Mohamed Adnan:
the current MD of Barclays bank. This guy pulled himself up from the bootstraps of mandera, to the harvard business school to barclays.
Minister of Agriculture:
Wangari Maathai
Agriculture depends on good environmental policy. She's the one.
Minister of Justice:
John Githongo. You want to eliminate corruption? he's your guy.
Minister of Telecommunications:
Ayisi Makatiani
We've got to diversify the economy away from land and into high-tech.
Minister of roads, public works:
Mukhisa Kituyi
He'a a hard worker and he understands that trade cannot take place without the proper infrastructure.
What's left? lands & housing - I have to think about that one further.
The other ministries do not matter.
LOL - @ Hugo Chavez for Entertainment. On a serious note, I strongly believe that ministers should not be MPs/politicians.
The US model works on that basis. You need NOT be an MP, etc to be a "Secretary"...
Much more preferable to the Brit/Kenyan model.
pissedatekenyanpoliticians, Correction on Napoleon taken!
A common mistake that we are all making is to generalise performance. I don't really think that a good long distance swimmer would make a good long distance cyclist. If Tiger Woods and Paul Tergat exchanged careers, would they be equally dominant? All your business performers - eg Titus - may be a total mess in politics.
In the western world, they understand this. That's why GB used Churchill for the war, then dumped him when peace came along. Good wartime leaders don't good peacetime leaders make - ASK ZIMBABWEANS, ha ha!!!!
In the USA, billionare ROSS PEROT cannot become Presidente.
It's easy to see some logic. In business, you can push, bully and sack your subordinates. In politics, you have to sell your agenda and YOURSELF too! Many business superstars have poor personalities - Chris, Titus, Ross, Bill can't win votes on Mars.
Toneloc: I do NOT agree.
What your are suggesting is that we have PROFESSIONAL politicians.
No, no and NO.
There are many who make the transition from "business" to politics.
I will post this on the other comments section.
Why are choosing people based on their success in the sectors they are involved in? There's a world of difference between the succesful entrepreneur and the successful politian! Case in point: Silvio Berlusconi - a man credit to be the richest Italian but failed miserably in transferring those skills into the political arena having achieved the pinnacle duty of Italian politics, the Prime Ministerial position. The Dream team Technocrats that were taunted as being the saivours of Kenya from economic woe came well shot of th expectations that were placed on them by Wanjiku - if they felt, as some are rumoured to claim, that the whole exercise was a facade to appease the Wanjiku making her think that somebody cared, they should have shown protest and refused to be part of the shinanigans intended to kwell the roucus; they would then have shown a very important characteristics of good policy makers (politicians), backbone/principle.
My point is, stop choosing based on the track-record until you can fully understand a person's character, you cannot declare them apt for a pupose, by remote observation.
That's where we, as Kenyans, have had our greatest failings....some sleek rich cat comes from the city in large 4WD singing water for everyone, electricity even in the chicken coops, jobs, etc, etc and the fact that he has a cushy life and fat wallet, we elect the guy in. We see him again 4 years later singing the same old song.
Grow out of this habit of picking based on track record in unrelated fields, and realise the only way to truely know a persons aptness for task, is to review intensity and longevity in such a task....Bill Gates giving away galaxyfuls of commitments to causes doesn't mean he's a magnanimous person (look how he took on Netscape and the progress of the Monopoly case in Europe - he's a hard-nosed businessman who'll take on anything he decides stands in his way)...as for the charity pledges, why go with all the world's press in tow to show your great magnonimity? It's for self-gratification and a selfish need to leave a legacy. Trash.
Read the signs before you choose a road!!
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