Rulers are as good as their advisors. Effective ones have a healthy diversity
presidents and premiers make interesting case studies after leaving office. The likes of Mikhail Gorbachev and Bill Clinton have made an industry out of being former heads of government. Tony Blair, now out of work, is a new entrant into this club, and is not its best exponent. In Delhi recently, he revealed a tendency every former head of government must resist in a post-career career: he allowed cracks in the mask of political correctness. He said environmentalists are not policy people, and that it is "important for serious policy making to be done by people who actually have responsibility to take the decisions".
The government of uk has been at the receiving end of public wrath over health and environment since the mad cow disease crisis blew up in its face. It resulted in opponents of corporate control of food and agriculture gaining significant public attention--apparent during the public debate in Blair's stewardship on genetically engineered crops. That his statements in India were lapped up by an unquestioning media only shows the naivete of business journalists here. Unlike the uk, where non-profits sprang from the consumer movement and the campaign for nuclear disarmament, non-governmental efforts in India have a different history: the struggle for independence and resistance to the 1975 Emergency Indira Gandhi imposed. Non-profits in India enjoy more credibility than either the government or industry.
Not to say non-profits have no shortcomings. The 1980s saw a string of them emerge, driven by both knowledge and ethics. Subsequently, some settled into neatly carved non-political niches: biodiversity conservation, water management, and public health have become the counterparts of ministries in the non-profit arena, with organizations sticking close to very focused agendas that rely less on informing public opinion and more on lobbying. Still, people know how corporate funds corrupt the electoral process in India, and how invisible corporate donations during elections predispose politicians to industry-friendly policies, even when corporate interest is diametrically opposed to ecological and economic security.
As much as non-profits need to become more political, the dire need is politicians spend as much time with non-profits as they do with corporates. In the 1950s and the 1960s, government committees had academics, community leaders and oddballs who could offer a serious critique and chip in with fresh solutions. Today's committees are loaded with corporates. If government schemes are not working as they ought to, the leadership better reconsider its channels of feedback. Otherwise, there is always a post-career career.
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