曼德拉的领导力进化史
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纳尔逊•曼德拉在反对种族隔离的斗争中牺牲了家庭、舒适和职业成功等美好生活的传统标识，以一位良心犯的身份，度过了长达27年的牢狱之灾。1994年，他一跃成为肩负领导国家之责的南非总统。当选后，曼德拉选择了宽恕，而非为蒙冤过往复仇，进而帮助南非人构筑了一个全新的社会根基。 尽管被他的人民奉为国父，但仅仅完成一个任期后，他就主动交出权杖，而不是像许多非洲强人那样，终生紧握最高权力，一刻也不愿松手。 这难道不是唯有圣人才有的品质吗？许多人当然如是看待曼德拉。美国总统奥巴马最近称他为“最伟大的历史人物之一。”英国广播公司( BBC )认为他“或许是我们这个时代受到最广泛赞赏的人物。”2012年的一项研究显示，曼德拉已成为全球性品牌，知名度仅次于可口可乐(Coca-Cola)。” 但也有不同声音。身为南非种族隔离时代最后一位领导人的德克勒克声称：“我并不认同世人为曼德拉谱写的圣徒颂歌。与如今广泛描述的形象恰恰相反，他绝对不是一位慈爱如圣徒般的人物。” 这种直言不讳的观点出自德克勒克之口，应该不会让我们感到惊讶。尽管因废除种族隔离制度的贡献，他和曼德拉分享了诺贝尔和平奖，但两人终究是死敌，对于这位对手，曼德拉也几乎没有做出过正面的评价。但就自己获得的圣徒美誉这一点而言，曼德拉其实同意德克勒克的观点：“我不是救世主，而是一位因特殊情势演变为领导者的普通人。” 事实上，在曼德拉的自传《漫漫自由路》(Long Walk to Freedom)中，除了通常以他为主角、充满盛赞之辞的头条新闻外，我们其实还可以发现他犯下的许多错误。 曼德拉是一位差劲的学者，一位在课堂上如坐针毡的法律系学生。1962年，他开始拥抱暴力，创建了非洲人国民大会(ANC)的秘密武装力量“民族之矛”(Spear of the Nation)，随后展开一系列针对政府的游击战争，并远航至埃塞俄比亚学习枪械使用技能。1994年南非首次民主选举期间，为确保非国大获得压倒性胜利，他四处游说，试图把选民的最低年龄从18岁降至14岁，还援引一个极其可疑，包括朝鲜、伊朗和古巴在内的五国名单作为先例。这个举动遭到了广泛的批评。 1991年，他前往赞比亚，要求赞比亚人选举肯尼思•卡翁达重新执掌最高权力，尽管在长达27年的独裁统治之后，卡翁达当时已完全丧失了民心。卡翁达最终落败。担任总统期间，曼德拉政府在很大程度上忽视了艾滋病在南非的病毒式蔓延。到他退休的时候，南非成年人的艾滋病感染人数已攀升至11.7%这一令人震惊的比例。 也许是由于这个时代过于渴望完美无瑕的英雄人物，我们急匆匆地把曼德拉抬上了一座他本人并不认可的偶像神坛。 |
Nelson Mandela sacrificed the usual trappings of a good life – family, comfort, professional success – to spend 27 years as a prisoner of conscience in his fight against apartheid. He emerged to lead his nation as its president in 1994 and chose to forgive rather than seek revenge for past crimes, helping South Africans build a new social foundation. After only one term in office, despite being viewed as a father of his nation by his people, he chose to hand over the reins of power voluntarily rather than keep a lifelong grip as many other strong leaders have sought to do in Africa. Is this not the makings of a saint? Many of us have certainly viewed Mandela as such. President Obama recently called him "one of the greatest people in history," the BBC described him as "perhaps the most generally admired figure of our age," and a research study in 2012 established Mandela as the second-most-well-known brand in the world, after Coca-Cola (KO). And yet, there are dissenting voices. F.W. de Klerk, the last apartheid-era leader of South Africa, said, "I do not subscribe to the general hagiography surrounding Mandela. He was by no means the avuncular and saint-like figure so widely depicted today." Coming from de Klerk, this unflattering view should not surprise us. Though he shared the Nobel Prize with Mandela for their work in dismantling apartheid, they were fierce opponents, and Mandela too had few positive things to say about his adversary. But on the point of his own sainthood, Mandela actually agreed with de Klerk: "I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances." Indeed, there are many markers on Mandela's "Long Walk to Freedom" -- beyond the glowing ticker-tape headlines we normally associate with him -- that demonstrate his fallibility. Mandela made for a poor scholar, struggling through his classes as a law student. In 1962, he embraced violence, founding Umkhonto we Sizwe -- Spear of the Nation -- the ANC's armed wing, which launched guerrilla attacks on the government, and journeyed to Ethiopia to learn how to use firearms. During South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, he actively canvassed for lowering the voting age from 18 to 14 years to ensure a strong win for the ANC, citing as precedents a questionable list of five countries that included North Korea, Iran, and Cuba -- a move that was widely criticized. In 1991, he traveled to Zambia and asked its people to vote Kenneth Kaunda back into power, even while Kaunda was very unpopular at that time after a 27-year dictatorship. Kaunda ended up losing. And as president, Mandela presided over an administration that largely ignored the AIDS epidemic in South Africa, with a shocking 11.7% of South African adults infected with the virus by the time he retired. Perhaps in our yearning for perfect heroes, we have rushed to place him on a pedestal that he himself recognized was not appropriate. |
