WHY THE COUNTRY EXISTS THIS WAY - 2 (GOOD GOVERNANCE) ART OF NEGOTIATION)

Negotiating skills are needed in all aspects of life -- whether in the family, in the workplace or in the larger society.

In politics, negotiation for Good Governance (GG)advocates means getting others, persuading them to see its value in making the government perform its role of democratizing benefits for and respecting human rights of the people. Are these tall orders?

In other words, all leaders aspiring whether for the presidency or any other official position down the organization, need to primarily know how they can persuade others to accept the so-called GG principles. Many sociologists have already written about this. Basically, they tell us, "know your audience, be aware of them, know how to deal with skeptics, and remove all barriers to acceptance of that new idea, etc."

This is easier said than done and we really need to take a course, a seminar-cum-workshop in order to know that. But beyond this preparation for a lifetime of negotiating as a leader, I bat for systems thinking.Basically, this is holistic thinking, meaning to say that a whole is composed of parts, of elements. Therefore we cannot disregard one and then generalize. Instead we should think that these elements are interrelated, linked and interact; therefore these make up the whole.

How does this operate?

When we look at the problem of drugs, for example, it is easy to say, "Ah the drug lords are to blame." So the agencies run after them, a press conference is called when one is caught, and then another dragnet is thrown to the next drug lord. Yet the problem persists. So what is the best way to deal with this? Well a drug addict surely lacks self-esteem, so he or she wanders in the arms of drug pushers easily. But if these victims have strong family roots and character, then they would not fall so easily to lures of temporary pleasures. (to be continued)