This speech is the same as Speech of The Day (282): U.C.A.A. 6TH GRADUATION, wich is dated for the 17th of July 1959!
On June 17,1959, at the Graduation Exercises
of the University College of Addis
Ababa, His
Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie I, gave
the
following address:
"This graduation ceremony is an occasion, not
merely for recapitulating and recounting
the fruits of
past efforts in terms of examination
results and of degrees
and diplomas awarded, but also for fixing one's sights
upon future accomplishments, obligations
and possibilities.
For the sixth time in the history of
this College, We
see an imposing group of young men and
women graduate
from this institution. Most of you, as in previous
years, will continue your studies and prepare yourselves
for higher degrees and varying careers. But whether
pursuing further studies or going
directly into the world,
all of you will soon be embarking upon a new stage
of your lives.
We, therefore, deem it necessary and appropriate,
on this occasion when you of this year's
graduating class
look back upon your student years with a
measure of
nostalgia and look forward, perhaps with
a measure of
understandable apprehension towards your
future careers
to speak to you about leaders and leadership.
As you know, leadership is required in
all fields and
no field is without its usefulness.
During Our visits,
however, to the educational institutions of Our country,
We have noticed, in answer to Our
enquiries, that the
percentage of students pursuing courses
of study useful
for the development of technology and
industry, has been
extremely low. We have, therefore,
counselled you to
take up technological and industrial
courses in preparing
to over-all programme. The reason for
Our introducing
this topic at present is that We have found the number
of those
receiving degrees in technological subjects today
to be very small indeed, and wish to
impress upon you all
that it is Our desire to see a much
larger number of Our
young people benefiting from the
resources We have on
Our own and have received as aid from
abroad, and
graduating in the fields of technology
and industrial
education.
We all know that the need for good
leadership in
every walk of life is much greater today
than ever before.
Every aspect of living demands guiding hands:
business,
the professions, the fine arts, the
mechanical arts, all.
And all of you young people, who have
been given the
enriching opportunity of an advanced
education will in
the future be called upon to shoulder in
varying degrees
the responsibilities to leading and
serving the nation.
It is Important, however, to remember that
leadership
does not mean domination. The world is
always
well supplied with people who wish to
rule and dominate
others. The true leader is of a
different sort: he seeks
effective activity which has a truly
beneficent purpose.
He inspires others to follow in his
wake, and holding
aloft the torch of wisdom, leads the way
for society to
realise its genuinely great aspirations.
You have learnt from your study of history
that the
story of nations is often told in terms
of the accomplishments
of individuals. In every significant event in
history, you will find a courageous and
determined leader,
an inspiring goal or objective, and an
adversary who
sought to foil his efforts.
In any normal society, everyone has some
opportunity
to show himself as a leader. Even the
mechanic or
clerk who has an assistant assigned to
him not to speak
of the doctor with all his helpers, or
the officer who
commands his troops, is a leader. Within
his own
sphere, each
has the same opportunities for showing
ability, and the same potential satisfactions as has
the
leader of a government. The leader is
marked out by
his individual craftsmanship, his
sensibility and insight,
his initiative and energy.
Leaders
are people, who raise the standards by
which they judge themselves - and by
which they are
willing to be judged. The goal chosen,
the objective
selected, the requirements imposed, are not merely
for
their followers alone. They develop with
consummate
energy and devotion their own skill and knowledge in
order to reach the standards they themselves
have set.
This whole-hearted acceptance of the
demands imposed
by ever higher standards is the basis of
all human progress.
A love of high quality, we must
remember, is essential
in a leader.
Dependability is another requirement in a leader.
To be dependable is to be willing to accept responsibility,
and to carry it out faithfully. A leader
will always be
willing to take counsel from his people,
but will often
have to act on what his own mind tells
him is right.
This demands that the leader has trained
himself out of
any inordinate fear of making mistakes.
To embark successfully on a career involving leadership
demands a courageous and determined spirit.
Once a person has decided upon his life work,
and is assured
that in doing the work for which he is
best endowed
and equipped, he is filling a vital need, what he then
needs is faith and integrity, coupled
with a courageous
spirit, so that, no longer preferring himself to
the fulfilment
of his task, he may address himself to
the problems
he must solve in order to be effective.
One mark of the
great leader is that he feels sufficiently secure to devote
his thought and attention to the well-being
of his subordinates
and the
perfection of his task, rather than being
constantly worried about the approval or
disapproval of
others.
He who would be a leader must pay the
price in
self-discipline and moral restraint.
This entails the
correction and improvement of personal
character, the
checking of passions and desires, and an
examplary
control of one's bodily needs and
drives.
Leaders have to submit themselves to a
stricter self-
discipline and develop a more examplary
moral character
than is expected of others. To be first
in place, one
must be first in merit as well.
It should not surprise Us then, to find
that the greater
number of acknowledged leaders have been
people who
trained themselves in the art of
discipline and obedience.
He who has not learned to render prompt
and willing
service to others will find it difficult
to win and keep the
good will and cooperation of his
subordinates.
Further, a leader must posses initiative, which is the
creative ability to think in new ways
and do new things.
The leader has always to stay ahead. He
cannot afford
to set up a procedure, and then fold his
hands and linger
lazily watching it work. He cannot be
content merely to
see new trends and take advantage of them. He must
keep his imagination vividly alive, so
as to originate
ideas and start trends.
A word of warning is in order here. To
help one's
subordinates or dependents at the cost
of harm to the
public, is tantamount to sacrilege and
blasphemy. It
is unfortunate, that many in position of
leadership,
both great and small, have been found
guilty of such
practices.
A good leader is devoted to his work and
will
willingly forgo even the demands of
sleep to see its
accomplishment.
This does not mean that he is im-
petuous. On the other hand, he maintains
a balance
between emotional drive and sound
thinking.
His labours, which sometimes appear
excessive,
derive from his firm realization that
unless a man under- .
takes more than he can possibly do he
will never be able
to do all he can do. It is his enthusiasm that stimulates
his energy.
No matter what our point of departure in
speaking
of leadership, we reach the inescapable
conclusion that
the art of leadership consists in the
ability to make people
want to work for you, when they are
really under no obligation
to do so.
The true leader is one who realizes by
faith that he is
an instrument in the hands of God, and
dedicates
himself to be a guide and inspirer of
the nobler sentiments
and aspirations of the people. He will
kindle interest,
teach, aid, correct and inspire. Those
whom he leads
will co-operate with him in maintaining
discipline for the
good of the group. He will instruct his
followers in the
goals towards which to strive, and
create in them a
sense of mutual effort for attaining the
goal.
To sum up, there is no power on earth,
in this
University or elsewhere, that can take a
clerk from his
desk or a mechanic from his bench, and
easily mould
him into a leader. To develop oneself,
one has to
develop one's own initiative and
perseverance – a man
has to strive in order to grow.
As educated people, you will be looked
up to, and
much will be expected of you. You will
be regarded,
and rightly so, as those who have the
necessary knowledge
and the ability to inspire, to guide and
to lead. It is for
this reason that we expect from you to
whom we have
given the opportunity of education in
your chosen fields,
great and productive service to Our
country:
These fundamental ideas of which We have briefly
spoken this day, constitute, We presume,
part of the
thought that you have absorbed during
the course of your
studies in this University College. May
these basic
thoughts accompany you during the years
ahead and aid
you in accomplishing great things for Our
beloved
country, Ethiopia.
In conclusion, We would like to express
Our thanks
and appreciation to the members of the
Faculty and the
Board of this University College for
their zealous and
untiring efforts for the growth of knowledge and the
development of character in the young people who learn
here.
We would like especially to entrust Our Vice-
Minister of Education, on the basis of
the statement
made
by him regarding the expansion and
growth of education
in the country, with the high responsibility of assiduously
and untiringly striving to carry out the
schemes mentioned
and the
decisions made by the Board."
Speeches delivered by His Imperial Majesty Haile
Selassie Ist Emperor of Ethiopia on various occasions - page 137 -
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen