The 5-year plan

I once had quite an enlightening conversation with a friend about politics and what he said made quite an impression. His involvement in politics as an aide to a senior politician, it was his keen sense of observation of how games are played on the arena of statesmanship that made him highly intelligent beyond his years.

“In politics,” he asserted, “Its all about making the move not in this term, but the next”. – meaning, the following five years (or four years) following the immediate election.

See, there aren’t many politicians that know how to plan an “assault” five years down the pipeline. Because today’s society is one that has a mentality of “wanting it now”, the art of taking a step back to observe and plan strategies and manoeuvres takes second precedence (or none for that matter) for an in-depth analysis of the terrain.

Surprisingly, age, I have come to understand, is not a key factor in this inability (or rather impatience) to stay still and analyse. For I have seen men well beyond the years of experience still succumbing to this lure of instant gratification.

Which brings me to a point – if today’s politicians aren’t prepared to plan their “conquest”, how can they then be left with the charge to plan a country’s future for the next 5 years?

Let’s see… whoever said “If we fail to plan, we plan to fail?” I guess we’ll just need to define that further either to mean a 5-minute plan or a 5-year plan…