Engineers make good politicians

TIME to unearth quality leaders.
When engineers experience career success, they are often steered in the direction of the higher calling – national leadership.
They make best leaders because of their ability to foresee problem, calculate risks, offer contingencies, seizing opportunities with precision and timing, unique analytical abilities and can turn management into science with emphasis on high moral standards and integrity.
Seventy-six years ago, an engineer from rural Missouri became the president of the United States of America and leader of the free world.
The world was at war.
“There’s no question that Harry Truman inherits a world in crisis,” heralded the newspapers.
Truman was different than any president who came before him.
He inherited a problem far larger than the free world when he took office and with the ingenuity and astuteness of an engineer, he turned the situation around and left the world a better place.
Dr Kurt Graham, the director of the Truman Library says “By and large, the fact that he (Truman) was decisive, the fact that he returned to a moral core as he made those decisions, that he was a man of integrity, I think that plays well. I think people respect Truman.”
There is a natural push to spread the influence of the best engineers at national politics.
It is time to allow our most capable engineers to become effective leaders.
If Papua New Guinea had the presidential system of government, I would recommend our top engineers to run for president.
Engineers are many as is ingenuity is endless, but names keep coming up with national politics in recent times are Sam Kaupa and Peter Nupiri among the few.
Both these men reached the pinnacle of their careers.
Kaupa, an outspoken national, has worked in major mines in the country and served with distinction at the supervisory and management levels.
The quality he put in his work raised him above the bar and distinguished him as an international mining specialist.
Kaupa is our ambassador in mining anywhere in the world.
His reputation precedes him and he is our best standard bearer.
He had travelled widely and worked in some renowned mines in places such as South Africa, Sierra Leone, Egypt and Sudan.
He is currently working in Sudan and continues to write in his column on mining and broader socioeconomic issues.
Nupri, just as his engineer colleagues Kaupa and Truman, comes from a rural outback of the country.
Leaving Oki Tedi gold mine as the first national mine superintendent, Nupri is an engineer with fortitude and purpose.
A disciplinarian as a seminarian, he quickly turned what good fortunes came to his way to investment and now has a thriving business.
The stories of our two engineers Kaupa and Nupiri may be different – one an entrepreneur and the other an ambassador – but both are different versions of success stories.
Both portray two men of high moral standing and had weaved their path to success on honesty, hard work, dedication and commitment.
Only if it was in America, we could uphold such men of noble qualities such as Truman to presidency.

David Lepi