Dear editor,
“Truthful, fact-based and compassionate leadership will automatically inspire confidence in the people.”
The influential Time Magazine has announced that its person of the year for 2020 is the tandem of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, incoming president, and vice-president, respectively, of the United States of America.
The pair will assume office next month, even as the current president, Donald Trump, insists the election was rigged, displaying a common malaise of politicians who think so highly of themselves they believe they are incapable of loss. In truth, the Biden-Harris team “offered restoration and renewal in a single ticket,” says TIME. “And America bought what they were selling: after the highest turnout in a century, they racked up 80 million votes and counting, the most in presidential history, topping Trump by some 7 million votes and flipping the battleground states.” Indeed America needs restoration and renewal, after four years of bitterness, pettiness, narcissism, racism and a scandalous disregard for decency and truth.
Gentleman Biden was initially perceived as boring and predictable, a stark contrast to the bombastic, larger-than-life personality of Trump. But this steadiness might be exactly what the country needs as it battles the still-raging pandemic, which takes as many as 2000 American lives per day. Ms. Harris is a trailblazer in her own right, the child of an Indian mother and Jamaican father. A seasoned lawyer and senator, she is poised to inject both nationality and compassion into the national discourse.
Make no mistake about it. The duo are not magicians who could make everything all right at once. They are up against many odds. Their own party is not perfect. And they have the daunting task of leading tens of millions of Americans who did not vote for them, who might reject and resist their leadership, and who might in fact make governing difficult for them. Still, the initial steps have been encouraging. Nominees for key positions in the government are competent, experienced and appear to conduct themselves with integrity.
Pronouncements on containing the virus and distributing the vaccine are science-based and logical. By no means are bidden and Harris the saviours of America. But from all indications, they seem capable of leading their country in saving itself.
Suruwa B. Wawa Jaiteh
Bakau
