The litmus test of a good leadership is not that it will not make mistakes but that it realises its mistakes and takes steps to correct the shortcomings and, at the same time, makes sure that it will not make the same mistakes again.
When democracy was at is infancy in the West, politicians realised that sometimes a mistake had to be pointed out before those who committed it became aware of it.
So they realised that the best way to get feedback on whether they had made mistakes was to have a free press.
As 18th century British statesman Edmund Burke once professed: “Three Estates in Parliament; but in the reporters’ gallery yonder, there sat a fourth Estate more important far than they all”.
The three estates that he referred to are the pillars of democracy – the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary.
The “fourth estate” is the Press. To the westerner, the press plays an important role of a watchdog, and the press gives valuable feedback to the government.
A free press is like a mirror; the reflection in it will tell those who stand before the mirror whether they have button their shirts properly, whether they have zipped up their pants, whether there are blemishes on their faces, and so on.
All of us depend on the mirror on the wall to give us an idea whether our countenance is presentable.
Likewise, a government needs a mirror to see whether it is doing all right or whether it has committed errors that might affect adversely the livelihood of the people.
To a wise government, a free press is the mirror that it needs to see its reflection.
In his book “Age of Turbulence”, Alan Greenspan pointed out that not a single nation which allows a free press suffers from starvation; not in the past and not likely in the future.
It is because, with a free press, a government can detect a mistake before it is too late. The press will give the necessary feedback like an early warning system.
So a free press is not only the fourth pillar of democracy, it is a friend of those governing, even if the press publishes writings that may be critical of certain policies or the decisions of these governing figures.
A good friend is one that gives you counsel when you have done wrong; not one that praises you even if you have made a mistake.
If it is a friend, then it should not be stifled. It should be allow to publish what is on the ground.
A free press in this modern era encompasses not just the printed media, but the electronic press, as well as the blogs.
I do not know about the reasons for the recent banning of the two political newspapers, but I hope that this is not the beginning of a clampdown on the blogs, the newspapers as well as on the freedom of speech.
No one would be stupid enough to break the mirror on his wall just because he or she does not wish to see his or her own ugly countenance.
Breaking the mirror will not help to turn an ugly countenance to a presentable one.
We must realise that, even without the mirror, an ugly countenance will still remain ugly.
Without the mirror, there is really no hope of remedial steps to address the ugliness and turn it to a more pleasant looking one.
A clever leader therefore should not clamp down on the media and the blogs. Instead he should take steps to nurture press freedom.
By doing so, he would have taken an important step to prevent shooting himself in the foot.
