IN POLITICS, leadership matters. Unfortunately, here in Guyana, we have not been blessed with the most persistent, enlightened political leadership.

While we would not readily admit it, our admiration for our respective leaders is grounded more in ethnic insecurities than in measurable leadership attributes. Yes, one cannot separate assessment of leadership qualities from our ethnic reality, but it should not be the only criterion. Many of us wonder in frustration why the younger generations are not as enamoured of our political titans of old. Does that tell us more about the quality of leadership than of the quality of younger people?

This is not to say that we have not had potentially good leaders who, from time to time, have stirred the imagination of our nation, or parts of it. We have had the Burnhams and Jagans and Rodneys who, in their separate ways, have left their individual marks on our segmented consciousness. Burnham and Jagan led the children out of bondage, and in the process carved out their own niches. Rodney inspired hope for an alternative niche. Good leadership, like good music, must cut across the generational divide.

The truth is they may have been victims of the decline of the charismatic Caribbean leader, whose god-like relationship with the masses ensured an almost uncritical hero-worship.

Today, that exists mostly in the nostalgia of the older generations or the party faithful. That charisma, while serving the function of good-feeling, was, in the final analysis, not transformative; the intent may have been noble, but the legacy is far from noble. At some point, that would have to soak in.

This brings us to the present. President David Granger is a new type of leader, who is not cut from the new technocratic cloth that seems to dominate Caribbean leadership these days. Although a military man by training, his politics do not flow from that authoritarian mindset. If ever there was a pragmatic Guyanese leader, Granger is that one, or comes closest to the ideal.

In policy terms, he is not deeply ideological. Despite being the party boss, he is not a party man by inclination. His initial ambivalence about partnership politics did not stand in the way of his emerging as a champion of this new politics.

To understand the essence of Granger, the politician, one, therefore, has to grapple with the challenges of contemporary Guyanese and Caribbean politics. Our society begs for order in our persistent chaos. It dreams of a leadership that tries to understand our inherent complexities. In many respects, it constructed the Granger way, perhaps in spite of Granger. One cannot help but admire his optimism and patience, whether it is with his partners in the Coalition or with the rampant Bharrat Jagdeo.

But this was complemented with a sure-footed poise as he confronted the Maduro challenge to our sovereignty.
Are we in the embryonic stage of a new model of leadership? Time will tell, hopefully, sooner rather than later.