Did you happen to catch Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech on Tuesday at the US-Islamic World Forum? Her speech clocks in at about 3,700 words by my computer’s word count.
Secretary Clinton’s speech pointed out the many difficulties facing the Arab countries – de-industrialization; poor job prospects for youth; a lack of respect for the rights of women; religious extremism.
One additional difficulty that she left out is the apparently standard notion among Arab elites that if you get into a position of political leadership, it is yours for as many decades as you like – even for life, if you want. (One wonders how many leaders of the recent protests in Arab countries secretly entertain this same notion.)
In this regard, one paragraph in Secretary Clinton’s speech stood out in particular:
It would interesting to see the various drafts of Secretary Clinton’s speech, because this paragraph (and the rest of the published version of the speech) left out something about Mandela that her audience, filled with influential Arab Muslim figures, needed to hear.
Mandela served just one term as South Africa’s president, and then left politics. As George Will wrote about George Washington’s retirement from politics after two terms as US president, Mandela gave South Africa an “imperishable example” by voluntarily leaving the political stage, allowing someone else to replace him and take on his role, thus “proclaiming himself dispensable.”
(“Is There an Arab George Washington?” was the title of a March 1stWall Street Journal article. A good question, but too undiplomatic for the Secretary of State to ask directly in a public address.)
Nelson Mandela helped not only his country, but an entire continent, by providing the rare example of a peaceful transition to retirement by an overwhelmingly popular political leader.
Like the Arab world, Africa too is groaning under the weight of too many leaders who regard themselves as indispensable – leaders who (per Richard Brookhiser) “do not want to know that they are dispensible, or mortal.”
The Arab world needs the example of a Mandela (or a Washington) to help it absorb the importance of dispensability in political life.
Because of diplomatic niceties, Hillary Clinton could not come out and say all this directly – but perhaps there’s a prominent Arab who can read between the lines, and give voice to what Clinton had to leave unsaid.
