Tuesday, September 08, 2009
DEAR Eamon, I hope you don’t mind my writing you this letter.
I know you’ve a lot on your mind, what with a new and probably turbulent Dáil term coming up.
Indeed, if the Lisbon referendum goes wrong – and we all hope it doesn’t, for the country’s sake – you may be looking at a general election before you know it. By the end of next month, in fact.
One way or the other, there is every chance of a general election either this side of Christmas or not too long after it. And that general election, whenever it happens, will be one of the most important democratic contests we have ever seen. It may even be the case that our democratic future depends on the outcome.
In my entire adult life I’ve never detected such a mood of disillusionment and anger as there is in Ireland at the moment. It’s so bad that if there were a charismatic new figure with a plausible prescription – no matter how dishonest it might be – there is every chance he (or she) would sweep the country.
There isn’t such a figure. But there is you (I realised when I wrote that down it sounded wrong. I think it’s very good news that some of the flash-in-the-pan parties and personalities of the past aren’t hanging around at the fringes of politics now. And I also think it’s very good news, for the country as a whole, that you’re there. The right man at the right time, so to speak).
You are – and there’s very little doubt about this – the people’s choice as next leader of our country.
Opinion poll after opinion poll has made it clear. Across the voters and supporters of all parties, you are the only one that strikes a positive chord in the electorate.
Now, as you know better than most, we’ve been here before. Every previous leader of the Labour party, in my experience, has had at least a spell, and sometimes a prolonged spell, as the most popular politician in the country.
If you were drawing up a list of "the best taoisigh we never had" there’s no doubt Ruairi Quinn, Pat Rabbitte and Dick Spring would feature somewhere on it. So would many others, of course, from all parties. But this letter isn’t about them.
There was one thing all the previous leaders of the party had in common. They were all conditioned to think of themselves as tánaistes.
That conditioning was constant and they got it everywhere – from the media, from their own people, of course from the bigger parties. It came to be seen as the natural order in their heads (not all the time, of course, but when they thought about it).
So, getting to the second job from the top in politics was always seen as a triumph for a Labour leader (and as often as not, by the leaders too).
Do you know any other leaders of substantial political parties anywhere in any of the western democracies who would regard it as a triumph – as the only thing possible to aim at – to get to the second job from the top?
Why is it only leaders of the Irish Labour Party who are supposed to think that way – who are roundly accused of arrogance if they want to aim higher?
Even by writing this, I’m going to be accused of trying to destabilise the relationship between Labour and Fine Gael. Or else it will be suggested that I’m having a pop at Enda Kenny. I’m not doing either of those things.
All I’m doing is suggesting that you have earned the right to aspire to exactly the same job as Enda aspires to. There’s no reason in the wide earthly world why Fine Gael should regard it as a sort of God-given right that you’ll be there to serve as the number two.
No one who gets to an all-Ireland final is ever playing for the runners-up spot, are they? (And if they are, most people would agree they don’t deserve to be in the final in the first place).
You couldn’t imagine telling Pádraig Harrington, before the last round of a major, that he has to settle for second because Tiger Woods deserves the title. But all those around you – and perhaps you yourself – seem to believe that’s how the next election should be run, with Enda clutching the Claret Jug and you applauding politely from the sidelines.
I’m inclined to say that whoever has the best four rounds should hold the trophy – and so far, you’re doing fine.
What I’m arguing for here is a mindset change. Of course, the difference between you and Pádraig Harrington is that he gets to go out there on his own, with nothing but talent and self-belief. You need both those things, and numbers too. If you don’t succeed in electing a decent number of TDs, and thereby getting a decent mandate, the argument for the top job is harder to make.
Previous leaders of the party have taken on that burden. You shouldn’t. You have one of the best organisational and policy teams in politics behind you – that’s their job. You have great individual TDs who can add value to the party. Your only job should be to lead and inspire. And no, I don’t mean lead and inspire the party. I mean lead and inspire the people.
For the remainder of the period between now and the general election, forget the party. Give it some specific instructions and let it get on with doing what it needs to do – finding good candidates and putting the support mechanisms in place to help them along.
Your job – your only job – is to get out and talk to people. And tell them the truth. For generations commentators have described the Irish electorate as the most sophisticated in the world. If that’s the case, then why are politicians so slow to trust in the intelligence of the electorate?
THE people of Ireland know full well that no honest politician can offer us anything but blood, sweat, tears and toil for the next few years.
Anyone offering a magic wand, who announces during an election campaign that he can see the "green shoots of recovery", or who decides there’s an easy answer to everything, will be rejected. We’ve had too much of that in the past.
What we do want to know is what this is all for? Is there a vision for a better future at the end of this and what will be the real priorities then?
In other words, what does the leader believe in, deep in his heart? Whose side is he on (because there is too much suspicion that wealth still has the inner ear of government)? Is he willing to share the pain that he’s asking us to take on?
There’s never been a time like this before in Ireland. Despite – maybe because of – the bitterness and disillusion I mentioned earlier, there is an overwhelming demand for honest, decent leadership, for people before party, for a leader who is with us.
Get out there and be that leader, Eamon. And you’ll be rewarded.
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