Geyer: Two quiet world leaders offer inspiration

By Georgia Anne Geyer

Searching the globe this summer, one could easily be overwhelmed by the question: "Are there any countries with leaders we can look up to anymore?"

Everywhere we look, "leadership" seems to be characterized by lack of dignity and stature, outright cruelty and personal corruption.

As it happens, two remarkable men, who defied these dismal expectations with all their hearts and souls, died within a month of each other this year, and they provide us with studies in excellence.

Have you ever heard of Ketumile Masire? I had not myself, although I have visited all the African nations around his landlocked and apparently destined-for-poverty Botswana. Known as "Quett," which we shall call him here with a mixture of affection and respect, he was elected president in 1984, '89 and '94 and emerges as one of the great leaders of a continent whose potential has been long-squandered by the greedy "Big Men" of African politics.

Quett was a poor boy who herded cows as a youngster. When he later went into politics, Botswana - known as Bechuanaland until its independence from Britain in 1966 - was the world's third poorest country. It had eight miles of tarmacked roads, 20 college graduates, 100 secondary school graduates and almost no running water or electricity.

Quett, who took correspondence courses to educate himself, might have been described as a "diamond in the rough," but when the famous De Beers mineral-extracting company discovered diamonds in the Kalahari Desert, the financial agility of the "self-taught economist" turned out to be smooth as silk.

Historically, big Western companies have regularly plundered places like Botswana, but this time, with Quett working closely with his friend, President Seretse Khama, De Beers entered into a unique 50-50 joint venture with the government. The country's new wealth went not for personal enrichment but for schools, health care, infrastructure and the modernization of farming.

Between 1966 and 1980, Botswana had the highest rate of economic growth in the world. Today Botswana is commonly known as "Africa's exception" and has been made famous among millions of readers worldwide by Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith's delightful novels, starting with "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency."

Quett, who died at 91 in June, told the Pan African Parliament: "Corruption is an evil. It is something that has really ruined the economy, the morals and everything of value in a society." And there is little corruption allowed in Botswana.

Quett's own presidency, however, had serious foreign policy problems with his neighbors, the "revolutionary" states that are now far behind practical Botswana in development. He not only overcame these problems but won universal praise for his work as a mediator in conflicts from Rwanda to Congo to Lesotho.

Thousands of miles north of Botswana, almost at the Arctic Circle, lies Finland, a country as different from Botswana as a place could be. Here we find our second great, too-little-heralded leader, Mauno Koivisto, who died at 93 in May in Helsinki. We will call him, respectfully also, by his popular nickname, "Manu."

The grandson of a cantor and the son of a Finnish seaman who experienced a religious awakening at sea and became a passionate Adventist, Manu had been a firefighter and schoolteacher before being called to fight the Soviets in the Winter War of 1939 and then the Continuation War between 1941 and '44.

"When you have taken part in a game in which your own life is at stake," he once recalled of this horrible time, "all other games are small after that experience."

Most peoples would have given up, with the powerful Soviet Union demanding Finnish acquiescence. But the Finns, led by Manu, always made the best of a bad situation.

(Like the weather. On one of my journeys there, I took an icebreaker trip in bitter cold weather for a brief "vacation." By 10 a.m., as I was wondering what in the world I was doing, the Finns were drinking and dancing to an orchestra, taking their beloved saunas, and having one whale of a good time.)

The wars left Manu a sober, proper man whom the Helsinki papers often found boring. In fact, he was a man who guarded his passions. Throughout his political career and presidency, he would deal with the Soviets with great propriety, but when the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, he later admitted, he sat down and wept.

Actually, he was a little like Ike, in that he hid his strategic cleverness behind his amiability. His friends say he liked to see himself as Gary Cooper in "High Noon," walking alone along deserted streets, waiting for the showdown.

In the wars with Moscow, the Finns preserved their independence, but they had to pay $300 million in reparations, which was half the GDP of the country. These impossible payments forced the Finns to invest in the shipbuilding and heavy industries that have made them prosperous today.

Meanwhile, Manu was maneuvering brilliantly behind the scenes, secretly negotiating with both President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev to come to Finland for the famous Helsinki Summit in 1990, which set the pattern for East-West relations until today. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Finland immediately fully joined the European Union and partly joined NATO - and the West.

Two men of extraordinary accomplishments. Two natural-born leaders from two very different worlds, geographically and culturally, and yet admirable in political instincts and similar in moral character.

We would do well to turn off the television and strive to know world leaders like them, for there are many of them, and they can inspire us quietly to greatness.