世界爲何沒有傑出領袖

Simone Veil, former French health minister, women’s champion, social reformer and president of the European Parliament, passed away last week. Her death came shortly before the funeral of Helmut Kohl, the German chancellor who presided over the unification of his country.

法國前衛生部長、女權活動家、社會改革家、歐洲議會(European Parliament)前議長西蒙娜?韋伊(Simone Veil)不久前去世。她辭世的時間正值另一位重量級政治家、促成德國統一的前總理赫爾穆特?科爾(Helmut Kohl)的葬禮之前。

Ms Veil survived Auschwitz. Mr Kohl could be insensitive to the Nazis’ victims, pressing US president Ronald Reagan to visit a cemetery where SS members were buried. But he strove to ensure Germany’s peaceful future in Europe and its reconciliation with old enemies. He helped reshape a continent.

韋伊是奧斯威辛集中營的倖存者。科爾可能對納粹受害者的敏感度不夠高，他曾力邀美國總統羅納德?里根(Ronald Reagan)訪問一個葬有黨衛軍成員的墓地。 但是，爲確保德國在歐洲有一個和平的未來，與宿敵化敵爲友，科爾做出了不懈的努力。他爲重塑歐洲大陸格局貢獻過力量。

Kohl succeeded two chancellors whose seriousness and stature remain vivid in the memories of those of us in the generation after theirs: Willy Brandt, who died in 1992, and Helmut Schmidt who passed away in 2015. All these leaders had their flaws, human and political. But they were a towering generation. Where do we find their like today?

科爾之前的兩位德國總理維利?勃蘭特(Willy Brandt)和赫爾穆特?施密特(Helmut Schmidt)分別於1992年和2015年去世，他們威嚴而偉大的形象仍然深深地印在他們之後的一代人記憶中。所有這些領袖在人格和政治方面都有自己的不足。然而，他們仍是值得我們舉首仰望的一代。現如今，敢問能與他們比肩的政治領袖何在？

History will probably view Angela Merkel, the present German chancellor, as a figure of substance. But the rest? The UK faces, in Brexit, its greatest challenge since the end of empire and the Suez crisis.

歷史可能會將德國現任總理安格拉?默克爾(Angela Merkel)歸入傑出領袖的行列。但是，其他國家的領導人呢？正在進行脫歐磋商的英國，面臨着大英帝國解體和蘇伊士運河危機（即第二次中東戰爭，最終導致英國艾登政府下臺——譯者注）以來最大的挑戰。

And who does the country of Winston Churchill have at its head? Theresa May, whose veneer of competence cracked on its first encounter with the electorate. Itching to take over from her is Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn, whose approach to Brexit is as incoherent as hers.

現如今，是誰在領導這個曾經誕生過溫斯頓?邱吉爾(Winston Churchill)的國家？特里薩?梅(Theresa May)的政治能力頭一次經歷大選的考驗就現出了原形。摩拳擦掌想要取代梅的是工黨(Labour Party)領袖傑里米?科爾賓(Jeremy Corbyn)，他的脫歐方案與梅的主張一樣不着邊際。

France’s new president, Emmanuel Macron, promises much, but is yet to be tested. He won the election after his Socialist predecessor Fran?ois Hollande, in whose government he served, became a figure of ridicule. Mr Macron defeated Marine Le Pen, who won over a third of the votes cast. In spite of her attempts to sanitise it, her National Front has its roots in the political culture that persecuted Ms Veil.

法國新總統埃馬紐埃爾?馬克龍(Emmanuel Macron)向選民作出了很多承諾，但這些承諾還有待時間的檢驗。馬克龍的前任、社會黨(Socialist Party)總統弗朗索瓦?奧朗德(Fran?ois Hollande)淪爲了世界的笑柄。馬克龍在大選中擊敗了國民陣線(National Front)候選人、得票超過三分之一的馬琳?勒龐(Marine Le Pen)。儘管勒龐一直在試圖讓法國國民陣線“洗心革面”，但該黨植根於曾迫害包括韋伊夫人在內的特定族羣的政治文化。

In the US, President Donald Trump’s increasingly grotesque behaviour last weekend included tweeting a doctored video of him wrestling a CNN journalist to the ground.

美國總統唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)的行爲越來越荒誕。不久前，他通過推特賬戶上傳了一段惡搞視頻，片中他將一名美國有線新聞網(CNN)記者摔倒在地。

What has happened to the quality of our leaders? One answer is that, unlike the generation of Veil and Kohl, leaders today have had no lacerating experience, such as the second world war, to imbue them with an understanding of the consequences of institutional breakdown and ethnic and racial hatred.

世界領導人的素質究竟出了什麼問題？答案之一是，與韋伊和科爾那一代領導人不同，今天的領導人沒有經過第二次世界大戰那樣的切膚之痛，他們無法理解制度崩潰和種族仇視所帶來的嚴重後果。

But if lack of experience of hard times has produced today’s inadequates, how do we explain South Africa? Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma both suffered under apartheid and spent years in prison for opposing it. Yet the former was a case study in integrity and leadership while the latter presides over a patronage-strewn embarrassment of a government.

但是，如果說缺乏艱難時期的經歷是導致今天的政治領袖能力不足的原因，那麼，我們又該如何解釋南非政壇的現象呢？ 納爾遜?曼德拉(Nelson Mandela)和雅各布?祖馬(Jacob Zuma)都在種族隔離時代遭受過苦難，並因反對種族隔離而入獄多年。然而，前者成了正直和領導力的楷模，而後者執掌的政府則因恩庇關係盛行而蒙羞。

Is the problem that today’s leaders are exercising their skills outside politics, perhaps in business? Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and his wife started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is active in health, education and the empowerment of women and girls. Michael Bloomberg, founder of the eponymous financial information and news company, has served as mayor of New York. Paul Polman, chief executive of Unilever, has championed business as a force for social and environmental good.

問題是不是出在當今的領導人將才能用到了政界之外的其他領域，或許是商界？微軟(Microsoft)聯合創始人比爾?蓋茨(Bill Gates)和他的妻子創立了比爾及梅琳達?蓋茨基金會(Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)，積極促進醫療和教育事業發展，賦權於婦女與女孩。財經信息與新聞公司彭博(Bloomberg)的創始人邁克爾?布隆伯格(Michael Bloomberg)曾擔任過紐約市市長。聯合利華(Unilever)的首席執行官保羅?波爾曼(Paul Polman)則大力主張，企業要在造福社會和環境方面發揮作用。

But there are not enough business chiefs to compensate for the dearth of political leaders and, in any case, they do not run our countries.

但是，我們沒有足夠的商界領袖來彌補政治領導人的稀缺。而且，商界領袖執掌的不是一個國家。

Do we have such poor leaders because we deserve them? This is a common view, which says that we live in trivial, reality television-addled times and, as a result, elect unserious or incompetent leaders to represent us.

有如此糟糕的領袖是我們咎由自取嗎？一個普遍的觀點是，我們生活在一個被庸俗不堪的電視真人秀麻醉的時代，因此纔會選舉出不夠嚴肅，或者能力不濟的領導人來。

But there are plenty of signs that electorates are unhappy with the political choices on offer. In last month’s UK general election, voters refused to entrust either the Conservatives or Labour with the task of ruling them, resulting in a hung parliament.

但是，也有衆多跡象表明，選民對提供給他們的政治選擇並不滿意。在不久前的英國大選中，選民拒絕將領導國家的重任託付給保守黨(Conservative Party)或工黨。在沒有一個政黨獲得絕對多數席位的情況下，英國又出現了懸浮議會。

Although the arithmetic of the electoral college propelled him to the White House, Mr Trump won fewer votes than Hillary Clinton in last year’s presidential poll. And in local elections last year, Mr Zuma’s African National Congress saw its votes fall as it lost key cities such as Johannesburg and Pretoria to the opposition.

特朗普是憑藉選舉人團制度才入主了白宮，他在去年的總統大選中獲得的選票少於希拉里?克林頓(Hillary Clinton)。在南非去年的地方選舉中，祖馬領導的非洲人國民大會(African National Congress)的得票下降，因其在約翰內斯堡和比勒陀利亞等重要城市輸給了反對黨。

Possibly the problem is our archaic parties and that we need new political movements to enthuse able would-be leaders to enter politics. Mr Macron’s République en Marche is one such movement. In an age of political vacuousness, there is a lot riding on his success.

問題可能在於我們的政黨過於老邁，缺乏活力，我們需要新的政治運動來激勵那些有能力的未來領導人進入政壇。馬克龍領導的政黨“共和前進”(République en Marche)發起的就是這樣一種運動。在政治空虛的時代，馬克龍的成功意義深遠。