** Visit AAM's new website! http://www.africanassociation.org **

Lonely leaders get their own helpline


Nelson Mandela is a patron of Mr de Klerk's new foundation
World dignitaries are gathering in southern England to help launch a diplomatic "brain-tank".

The aptly named Global Leadership Foundation (GLF) aims to be a helpline for presidents and prime ministers in trouble.

The initial list of world-class leaders who will offer their expertise includes former Czech President Vaclav Havel, Ketumile Masire of Botswana and Portugal's Annibal Cavaco Silva.

Its chairman is the former South African president and Nobel Peace prize winner, FW de Klerk.

Among its patrons are Nelson Mandela - released from prison when Mr de Klerk was in office in 1990 - George Bush senior and Poland's Lech Walesa.

Wise decisions

"A good friend of mine came to me and said in his job travelling across the world, dealing with governments, trying to get them to take wise decisions, he has come to the conclusions that in the developing world, many leaders are quite lonely," Mr de Klerk told the BBC's The World Tonight programme.

They decided there was a niche market for a group that could offer support and advice to governments, made up of former leaders who "who made their mistakes and who learnt from those mistakes, hopefully".

Mr de Klerk already fronts his own FW de Klerk foundation, which focuses primarily on South Africa.

But he hopes the GLF will work behind the scenes with leaders from around the word.

The group, he adds, will be able to use its influence and contacts for the benefit of clients.

"I see a small team of us sitting down with a leader, discussing what can be done to overcome his problem, lending a helping hand, having listened to his problem making a phone call maybe to the World Bank and convincing the World Bank that they shouldn't be so strong on one of their conditionalities," he says.

Confidential advice

He brushes aside concerns that some leaders might be wary of approaching Mr de Klerk for fear of potential embarrassment.

"We are not a secret organisation, but we will maintain confidentiality," he says.

"Our advice and our interaction will be confidential, it will be up to that leader whether he wants to announce that he is in interaction that he is talking to me and a few of the others or not."

Neither does Mr de Klerk believe that his past as head of South Africa's last apartheid government will be a barrier.

"If any one of us might not be acceptable, we will not use that person for that specific project," he says.

Many people misread his reputation, he adds.
Many in Africa "regard what has happened in South Africa as a miracle".

"I get, embarrassingly, much recognition for my role for what has happened in South Africa," he says.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, visit:

        http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/aam.html

AAM Website:  http://www.africanassociation.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------