Effective Leadership is the Essential Ingredient
“Leadership is the essential catalytic ingredient which pulls together the disparate forces and components of any entity, thereby transforming it into a focused, functional and efficient whole in pursuit of clearly defined, comprehensible and desirable goals.” So said Ambassador Kingsley C.A. Layne, C.M.G, in remarks in Paramaribo, Suriname, on Tuesday June 23, 2009.
The occasion was the 2009 Graduation and Awards ceremony of the prestigious AlphaMax Academy, at the Torarica Hotel Ballroom. The accomplished Caribbean diplomat was speaking after having been presented with a signed copy of the painting, “A Portrait of Hope and Peace,” by renowned Surinamese artist Ruben Karsters. The portrait, which was commissioned by the AlphaMax Foundation, captures the images of (4) four legendary leaders of the 20th century, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm (X) and Nelson Mandela. Dubbed the 4 Ms’: Mohan, Martin, Malcolm and Mandela, the artist’s express intent was to portray on canvas the legendary and inspiring leaders “whose stature, while undoubtedly significant in local fields of action, was nonetheless global in reach and consequences. Their legacies were to embody more than virtuoso political statements, but their exemplary lives of personal self-transformation, service and sacrifice were to embrace and reflect universally-accepted, living, spiritual values, in order to serve as role models for leaders who followed, and especially to inspire the thirsty generations of the 21st century, who stand on the threshold of a challenging world which demands and calls for other paradigms of power.”
The original was presented to Her Excellency Lisa Bobby Schreiber-Hughes, outgoing Ambassador of the USA to the Republic of Suriname by Academy Director and Principal, Sean F. Taylor, and the artist himself, Professor Ruben Karsters, for transmission to the 44th President of the USA, His Excellency Barack Hussein Obama, whose example of perseverance, courage and pragmatic ambition has inspired the Academy’s Leadership program, and was highlighted in Ambassador Schreiber-Hughes’ keynote address at the graduation ceremony.
In his remarks Ambassador Layne, a Vincentian and a former Dean of Caribbean Ambassadors in Washington, DC, and Director of the OAS in Suriname, praised the school’s emphasis on Leadership skills and pointed out the fact that there was virtual parity between boys and girls in the graduating class. He noted that this is a rare occurrence these days in the Caribbean, where the ratio between males and females in graduating classes is heavily lopsided in favour of the females. He wondered aloud, “Where will these fine ladies find compatible mates?”
Ambassador Layne, who is a trustee of the AlphaMax Foundation, which runs the school, in reflecting on the portrait, traced the long line of leadership fostered by Mohandas Gandhi, which runs through Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of Independent India, his daughter Indira Gandhi, (no blood relation to Mohandas), who became the first, and so far only female Prime Minister of India, her son Rajiv, another Prime Minister, and now his wife Sonia Gandhi, President of the ruling Congress Party, and her progeny. He lauded the contribution of women in leadership, in homes and families, communities, business, the professions and government.
Paramaribo, Suriname, 24 June 2009.
