The arrogance of power
By Owen Bennett-Jones - BBC News
All over the world there are some leaders who are reluctant
to give up power.
The most striking current example is Burundi's President
Pierre Nkurunziza who, amidst violent opposition, is campaigning for a third
term in office despite the constitution saying he can only have two.
He argues that he was appointed, not elected, to his first
term so it doesn't count.
Many believe President Paul Kagame in neighbouring Rwanda is
also looking to breach his two-term limit.
But that would be a mere dot in time for President Yahya
Jammeh of The Gambia. "If I have to rule this country for one billion
years I will," he told the BBC in 2011.
Hanging on does not always work.
The President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, was
overthrown by popular protest last year for trying to change the constitution
so that he could seek re-election.
'Let him continue'
While some presidents attempt legalistic tactics to get
around term limits, others reject them outright.
Seven-term leader President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe says
they are undemocratic: "We put a rope around our necks and say leaders can
only have two terms," he told a summit of African Union leaders earlier
this year.
"It is a democracy. If people want a leader to
continue, let him continue."
Some post-independence leaders in East Asia have been
equally unapologetic about staying in office for decades.
Indonesia's President Sukarno had 22 years at the top, while
Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew was Prime Minister from 1959 to 1990.
"Lee Kuan Yew was an exceptional guy and at the end of
his reign Singapore's GDP was over a dozen times higher than when he took
over," Prof Kishore Mahbubani from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public
Policy in Singapore told Newshour Extra.
"You have to look at it country by country and not
assume there is one Western rule for the whole world."
Western idea?
Term limits are seen as a Western idea, in large part
because of the United States' two-term presidential rule.
It was introduced as the 22nd Constitutional amendment in
1951, six years after Franklin Delano Roosevelt won his fourth term in office.
Before FDR the two-term idea was merely a convention dating
back to the example of George Washington.
Although the history of term limits can be traced back to
ancient Greece, it is far from clear the idea is in fact a uniquely Western
one.
Some European countries have no term limits, including
Italy, Switzerland and Russia.
And elsewhere there is considerable support for a set period
in office.
"If you look at the public opinion data we have on most
African countries, a majority of people in Africa support presidential term
limits," says Prof Nic Cheeseman of Oxford University.
"This isn't simply something being pushed by the
West."
Hubris syndrome
Some argue for term limits on the grounds that a prolonged
period at the top can change a leader's personality and damage his or her
judgement.
Former British foreign secretary and trained psychiatrist,
Lord Owen, argues that by the time they have been in power for many years, some
leaders tend to become arrogant, unwilling to listen and overly optimistic that
their decisions will produce good results.
"Eight years is enough," Lord Owen told Newshour
Extra.
"Blair is the classic example of hubris and it had
profound effects because he reinforced the hubris of Bush and Bush reinforced
Blair's and these two made terrible mistakes."
Lord Owen believes acquired hubris is not limited to
politicians:
"It exists in bankers," he says.
"If you look at the roots of the 2008-9 crisis you see
in many major banks that their chief executives were making decisions based on
a lot of the characteristics of somebody suffering from hubris syndrome."
Some research gives backing to these conclusions.
"Excessive winning increases testosterone. That
increases [brain chemical] dopamine activity and the reward network," says
Ian Robertson, Professor of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin.
"When you increase dopamine activity too much or for
too long a time, you actually disrupt the judgement of the brain."
Journalist Wilf Mbanga believes some the symptoms of hubris
syndrome apply to Robert Mugabe.
Mbanga once knew Mugabe so well they would listen to Jim
Reeves tracks together.
"I was a fanatical supporter of Mugabe and his
party," he says.
But today he says, Mugabe has changed. "Now he believes
he owns Zimbabwe. It is personal property now."
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