Chinkee Tan
I am often asked, both online and offline, who I will be voting for this coming elections. Instead of telling you who my personal choice is, I would rather share with you what my basis is for choosing a leader.
This blog is in no way meant to change your personal choice when it comes to your own vote.
However, since we are choosing a leader who will lead our country for the next six years, I think it is only wise and fair for us to ask this question: “What are the qualifications of a great leader?”
I believe that the best way to know the answer to this question is to look at the two most successful leaders in the Bible.
THE RIGHT HEART
Let’s first look at King David – the one who killed Goliath.
Psalms 78:72
“And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skilful hands he led them.”
I believe that integrity of the heart is the first qualification of a great leader. What are his or her true intentions for leading? Is it to serve the people’s interest or to serve only one’s own personal interest? Is it to simply gain power or to use one’s appointed power for the benefit of the many?
Is it to make oneself wealthy or to enable the country experience wealth and economic success?
It is the heart that dictates what a person will do in his or her life. This is why it is important for a person, all the more a leader, to have the right heart from start to finish. It is also common for leaders to have a good heart at the start, only to have their hearts become blind and corrupted.
I do believe that in order to become a great leader, one should make decisions that will benefit the majority, and not just the minority.
A great leader must not be selfish, but selfless. A great leader must not be self-centered, but others-centered.
Great leaders should make decisions that will improve and enrich the lives of many.
THE RIGHT MIND
Let’s now look at King Solomon. He was known to be the wisest king in all of the Earth. As King, he was given the opportunity by God to ask for one thing from Him. King Solomon didn’t ask for riches or power, but wisdom.
1 Kings 3:9
Please make me wise and teach me the difference between right and wrong. Then I will know how to rule your people. If you don’t there is no way I could rule this great nation of yours.”
It’s not enough for a leader to just have the right heart, but he or she must also have the right mind. Even if a leader’s intention is pure, if the tactics and strategy employed are incorrect because of ignorance, the outcome will still be devastating.
THE RIGHT SKILLS
Let’s go back to King David.
Psalms 78:72
And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skilful hands he led them.
A great leader must also have skill, and this can be seen in the things that he or she has done, and even currently doing. Not only must a leader possess the right heart and the right mind, but a great leader must also have political will. He or she must not keep on making empty and broken promises.
Leaders should make tough decisions no matter how unpopular these decisions may be.
Being the president of the Philippines is not a popularity contest. It is about doing what needs to be done.
To conclude, as we choose our candidates, let us choose the leader that this country NEEDS, and the leader that these times are CALLING FOR.
Let us reflect and carefully examine who our beloved country needs, and not just who we feel like voting. Let us not choose a leader on the basis of who is popular, who is more likely to win, or who will greatly benefit only ourselves.
Let us be wise in choosing our leader!
Let us not focus too much on hearsays and empty words; instead let us look at what our candidates have done.
There is a saying that goes: A tree is recognised by its fruit. If you say that you are an orange tree, but the fruit that you bear is an apple, then you are not an orange tree. You are an apple tree.
In the same way, if a leader says that he or she has done much for our beloved country, let us not merely take their words for it. Let us look at what they are doing, and what they have actually done.
Let us look at the kind of fruit that they bear.
As one nation, let us pray for a leader with the:
RIGHT HEART
RIGHT MIND
RIGHT SKILLS
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