A clear vision or just a mirage?

By Robin Rhee

SEOUL: "Where there is no vision, the people perish." - The Book of Proverbs, Bible.

Vision, one of the five senses, feeds us information about our surroundings. We do not see the objects around us in a literal sense, but our eyes receive the reflected light from those objects to give us a sense of our environment. Vision when related to those who are, or have ambition to be, our leaders is quite a different matter.

Political candidates running for office full steam ahead and individuals lobbying for political appointments will often speak passionately about their visions for the future. They profess to know what could be, what should be, and to possess the leadership qualities and to hold all of the keys to unlock the doors that will lead to optimal results. If they are both forceful and convincing enough, chances are they will be catapulted into positions of power and given the opportunity to prove themselves.

Since no vision exists in a vacuum, or is immune to changing circumstances and it can be influenced or even torn asunder by its detractors, how it will all play out is somewhat of a crapshoot. After all, the vision from the top and a worm's eye viewpoint are poles apart. One must also take into account that no individual leader is perfect, yet few have good enough vision to identify their own faults, and 20-20 vision in the political arena is unheard of.

Flawed or skewed vision can give birth to faux visionary policies and programs that are losing propositions from the very outset. If the leader can't comprehend the big picture and is locked into tunnel vision it is a recipe for failure. Likewise, if he can't see the forest from the trees and couldn't recognize a solution to a problem if it jumped up and smacked him in the face, he's doomed to fail.

If a leader can cover his inadequacies by surrounding himself with brilliant, upright and honest advisers, they may be able to keep the dream of his vision on course. Should the boss choose advisers who share his weaknesses, or heaven forbid have even worse ones, his administration will prove to be the perfect example of the blind trying to lead the blind.

If the head "honcho's" vision for the future is based exclusively on a conservative, middle-of-the-road or liberal conviction, with the possibility that on either end of the triad the prefix "ultra" could be affixed, it will be attacked by all those not in agreement. To tinker with it until it is palatable to a broad cross-section of the populace, though, is probably to neuter it. To push for its implementation without any changes would conceivably lead to its ultimate defeat and disappearance. If a leader decides to arbitrarily defend the merits of his vision to the death, and views it through rose colored glasses, he will see red and become irrational when it is summarily rejected.

Throughout any administration, there will be those who try to pull the wool over the leader's eyes. The astute leader will be able to see through the ploys. The dull-witted and self-centered will not. There will also be those close to the main man who will bend and break the rules for personal gain. If the leader chooses not to rock the boat and to turn a blind eye to these violations he's writing his own ticket to disaster.

Foresight, it is said, is better than hindsight, for to keep your eyes focused on where you are going is better than dwelling on the past. Leaders, however, must at times look back to see where mistakes were made and what could have been done differently to avoid them. From this sort of analytical exercise leaders can learn valuable lessons for future decision-making and application.

Some leaders, however, are so egotistical and stubborn that they learn nothing from past errors. These are the individuals about which is written, "There are none so blind as they who will not see."

Having a vision for the future is easy. Most people want the same things: peace, prosperity, good health, happiness. That, however, is utopia.

Accomplishing even some of it is the hard part. Any politician can articulate his vision and feign to know it all. He can even make us believe that he can make it possible because that's what we want, too. To stay the course and see it through to the bitter end is an entirely different can of worms.

"No pain, no gain," it is said, but a majority of people still think there must be some magic route to the light at the end of the tunnel. It takes a special leader to blaze the trail and it takes people willing to make some personal sacrifices in pursuit of his vision for the future. When either the leader, the people, or both fall short, the vision dies.

"All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream," wrote Edgar Allan Poe. Since people always can see farther than they can reach, there will always be new leaders, new visions and new hope -- and one of these days perhaps we'll get it right.

The writer has been a member of the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation since 1994.

-- The Korea Herald/Asia News Network