I would like to make an important clarification regarding my previous published note (see Towards a new opposition representation, in https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/p/towards-new-opposition-representation.html). In fact, I titled the note with emphasis on the term "representation" and not on the term "leadership". I specifically highlighted: "Although leaderships are not decreed or elected, because the situation itself generates them, Venezuelans must find new channels and scope for the opposition struggle over and above what has happened to us through an updated and legitimate representation".
Leaders are the result of a complex process. In politics as in other fields, a leader is not selected by vote, but rather a person is chosen to exercise a representative position. For example, in the past, large corporations used to "build" a career for people looking for an executive profile aligned with the business plans and who could take the reins of the company in the future.
In this way, in the course of time, the best prospects were selected until the ones who were going to lead the business reached the corporate top. Anyone who has worked in the Venezuelan oil industry knows what I am talking about. In this context, for example, Exxon's Board of Directors does not vote among its employees who will assume the management or top management positions. Those positions correspond to the most capable, trained within their own ranks, who after years of preparation, are constantly evaluated by the corporate pyramid to be selected for the important responsibilities that come with leading those emporiums. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the political world.
In politics, and even more so in Venezuelan politics, the term leader is confused with boss. The common people still have the erroneous perception that both are the same thing and this is not so. Political leadership is cultivated over time. People who have the responsibility of leading groups, besides answering the three questions I made reference to in 2015 (see in Spanish Leadership Questionnaire, in https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2015/10/cuestionario-de-liderazgo.html), must know how to differentiate leadership from authority. Let's see it in the words of Simon Sinek:
“So leadership and authority are not the same thing. Title affords you authority. Affords you rank, right? But it doesn’t make you a leader. I know may people who sit at high levels of organizations who are not leaders. We do as they tell us, because they have authority over us, but we don’t trust them and wouldn’t follow them anywhere. And I know many people at low levels of organizations that have no formal rank, no formal authority but they’ve made the choice to look after the person to the left of them and take care of the person to the right of them. And we would trust them and follow them anywhere…” (see Having authority may give you a title, but it’s trust thats makes you a leader, in https://www.linkedin.com/posts/simonsinek_leadership-authority-activity-6871834157752860674-8pY0).
The political heads of the parties in Venezuela believe they are leaders. They expect people to continue believing in them when they have completely lost moral authority, due to the actions of which they have been protagonists. In the words of Sinek himself, "People do not buy what you do; they buy why you do it". (see Simon Sinek, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, in http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action). And why do Venezuelans believe that political leaders do what they do? Could they believe that the welfare of the Venezuelan people motivates their actions? I do not believe it, and neither did more than 75% or 80% of the voters who did not vote on November 21.
So, at this point, having established that we cannot "choose" political leadership through elections, or any other similar process, the effort should focus on choosing representatives from among the different options from the ranks of civil society, or from the same parties whose leaders still maintain some credibility. People with the capacity for empathy and trust, clear communication and above all honesty, should stand out among the chosen representatives. They will be the ones who will finally shape the leadership expected from society. But, what should be the approach to Venezuelans so that the necessary confidence to follow and support them may arise from there?
I believe that these representatives should not sell their charisma as in the past, but clearly express what solutions they propose to apply to the problems of Venezuelans beyond a simple change of people in positions of power. These aspirants to a new political representation should sell to Venezuelans how they conceive change and what are their proposals to achieve it. In other words, "why he is doing what he is doing" so that people will follow his leadership, as Sinek indicated. In that way, if after being elected he is consistent with his proposals and wins the confidence of the majorities, then he can be considered a consistent and serious political leadership.
Throughout Venezuela, the Alianza Nacional Constituyente Originaria, ANCO, through its authorized spokespersons in the States, has presented a project for political change of great scope and depth, which has been discussed within many representative sectors of these regional communities. The Great Change (see in Spanish, The Great Change, Proposal for the Refoundation of Venezuela, in https://ancoficial.blogspot.com/p/documentos-fundamentales.html) is the ideal expression of the aspirations of many potential representatives. In fact, they are natural leaders of their unions in their regions, but in the absence of the legitimate political institution par excellence in the country, an elected Parliament without the traps of the regime, the voice of these potential representatives will continue to be silenced, not being able to express this authorized voice before the Venezuelan people.
This representation should be the natural quarry of a new political leadership that advocates for a new institutionality through two paths: a) as part of a Citizen Congress that is a faithful expression of civil society, product of a legitimate election through Ad Hoc mechanisms established by the same citizenry; or b) as an elected representation of constituents within the framework of a possible call for a National Constituent Assembly to establish a new institutional framework in Venezuela.
The constituent path is much more expeditious than the first one, and in both cases it would be very healthy to elect representatives whose leadership the citizens would be in a position to evaluate according to what they propose to solve the country's problems, beyond them as an electoral product. Hopefully, from now on this will be the measure that differentiates a representative from a true leader for the good of this troubled country.
Caracas, December 4, 2021
Blog: https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
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