Our Nicolas Sarkozy must please stand up!

I RETURNED to France after a short visit to Namibia on Monday morning to a new reality.

The 23rd President of France and the 6th under the fifth republic is the son of a Hungarian immigrant whose father once told him that with his surname and poor school results he would not get far in France! I had mixed feelings about my return despite my unconditional defence and support (being called a coconut in the process!) of Nicolas Sarkozy, both in Namibia and France during his presidential campaign. I was quite naive, or perhaps plain silly, to think that since I was coincidentally waking up and returning to a Sarkozy reality, a politician considered anti-immigration, that I might suddenly encounter hiccoughs at immigration upon my return to France.In fact, it was much smoother than usual but it is pointless to read much into that.Of course, had my entry not been smooth, it would have been a clear insult to my pro-Sarkozy stance and something I would not even dare relate to my very anti-Sarkozy friends at the Cite Universitaire.And bear in mind that not everybody in France has digested to date the verdict of democracy as is evidenced by various pockets of protest around la Bastille in Paris and Lyon.Nevertheless, I think that the question that has been or is of genuine interest to me is not the perception that Nicolas Sarkozy was cultivated as a tough “anti-immigration cop” at Home Affairs.What is of interest to me as a political Namibian living in Paris and what largely informed my support for Sarkozy over the past four years is the model of politics that he represents.First, Nicolas Sarkozy as the son of an immigrant, represents what should be possible in a democracy: we should not fear those who are not of our background when we share the Republican space.Sarkozy’s credo, which I think we should buy into as Namibians, has always been that the republic is one of recognition, hard work and merit.And tellingly, French voters didn’t judge him on the basis of his “un-French” surname.Second, to illustrate the model Sarkozy stands for and most importantly one that is of urgent utility for politicians (and voters) in Namibia, Nicolas Sarkozy once remarked: “If I am elected President of the Republic, it means that I have deserved it”.As a statement it is banal or arrogant, depending on how you look at it, and anybody who stands for a presidential election and wins could lay claim to such a comment given what is normally invested in presidential campaigns.However such a comment would have been less true of Sarkozy’s rival candidate, Segolene Royal, who accidentally became a candidate for the Elysee after a few positive opinion polls.Evidently, what this tells us is that such a statement will have more value in some cases than in others, as is the case with Nicolas Sarkozy.It is one thing to become president because chance or luck allowed you to become the president of a given country and it is another when it is the result of long-standing ambition and meticulous hard work.History is littered with examples of individuals who became presidents because chance was most of the time or at a particular time, on their side.Now, you might be tempted to argue that these things are most of the time a result of chance and have less to do with hard work.Yet I think that for any society that believes in merit, competence and hard work, leadership should not be left up to chance.It is for this reason that I also believe that Jacques Chirac was right in not playing any meaningful role in his own succession.For the same reason, I also don’t see why President Sam Nujoma, who became the founding president as a result of sheer ambition and hard work would not want others to go the same route.This question is pretty urgent in light of the forthcoming congress of the ruling party and we should now allow ambition, merit and hard work take centre-stage in our politics instead of uncritical loyalty to what we believe in.Admittedly, there are clear pitfalls when leaders owe their being in office excessively to others.Nothing gets done without looking at and second-guessing what the other centre of power thinks or would wish to be done.In fact, it takes a lot of political courage and intellectual appreciation of leadership to move out of this cycle of permanent gratitude to an individual.And this kind of process does in fact paralyse decision-making and the country from moving forward.Nicolas Sarkozy is elected with a mandate he can call his own and for that reason alone, when electing or choosing leaders, Nicolas Sarkozy’s journey is indeed an extraordinary model for our politics.After all, we don’t want to sit with a leader who asks himself the awful question: what have I done to deserve being president of this country? * Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in Political Science at the University of Paris Pantheon Sorbonne, France.I was quite naive, or perhaps plain silly, to think that since I was coincidentally waking up and returning to a Sarkozy reality, a politician considered anti-immigration, that I might suddenly encounter hiccoughs at immigration upon my return to France.In fact, it was much smoother than usual but it is pointless to read much into that.Of course, had my entry not been smooth, it would have been a clear insult to my pro-Sarkozy stance and something I would not even dare relate to my very anti-Sarkozy friends at the Cite Universitaire.And bear in mind that not everybody in France has digested to date the verdict of democracy as is evidenced by various pockets of protest around la Bastille in Paris and Lyon.Nevertheless, I think that the question that has been or is of genuine interest to me is not the perception that Nicolas Sarkozy was cultivated as a tough “anti-immigration cop” at Home Affairs.What is of interest to me as a political Namibian living in Paris and what largely informed my support for Sarkozy over the past four years is the model of politics that he represents.First, Nicolas Sarkozy as the son of an immigrant, represents what should be possible in a democracy: we should not fear those who are not of our background when we share the Republican space.Sarkozy’s credo, which I think we should buy into as Namibians, has always been that the republic is one of recognition, hard work and merit.And tellingly, French voters didn’t judge him on the basis of his “un-French” surname.Second, to illustrate the model Sarkozy stands for and most importantly one that is of urgent utility for politicians (and voters) in Namibia, Nicolas Sarkozy once remarked: “If I am elected President of the Republic, it means that I have deserved it”.As a statement it is banal or arrogant, depending on how you look at it, and anybody who stands for a presidential election and wins could lay claim to such a comment given what is normally invested in presidential campaigns.However such a comment would have been less true of Sarkozy’s rival candidate, Segolene Royal, who accidentally became a candidate for the Elysee after a few positive opinion polls.Evidently, what this tells us is that such a statement will have more value in some cases than in others, as is the case with Nicolas Sarkozy.It is one thing to become president because chance or luck allowed you to become the president of a given country and it is another when it is the result of long-standing ambition and meticulous hard work.History is littered with examples of individuals who became presidents because chance was most of the time or at a particular time, on their side.Now, you might be tempted to argue that these things are most of the time a result of chance and have less to do with hard work.Yet I think that for any society that believes in merit, competence and hard work, leadership should not be left up to chance.It is for this reason that I also believe that Jacques Chirac was right in not playing any meaningful role in his own succession.For the same reason, I also don’t see why President Sam Nujoma, who became the founding president as a result of sheer ambition and hard work would not want others to go the same route.This question is pretty urgent in light of the forthcoming congress of the ruling party and we should now allow ambition, merit and hard work take centre-stage in our politics instead of uncritical loyalty to what we believe in.Admittedly, there are clear pitfalls when leaders owe their being in office excessively to others.Nothing gets done without looking at and second-guessing what the other centre of power thinks or would wish to be done.In fact, it takes a lot of political courage and intellectual appreciation of leadership to move out of this cycle of permanent gratitude to an individual.And this kind of process does in fact paralyse decision-making and the country from moving forward.Nicolas Sarkozy is elected with a mandate he can call his own and for that reason alone, when electing or choosing leaders, Nicolas Sarkozy’s journey is indeed an extraordinary model for our politics.After all, we don’t want to sit with a leader who asks himself the awful question: what have I done to deserve being president of this country? * Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in Political Science at the University of Paris Pantheon Sorbonne, France.