It’s
a traditional trend in the Western world that when leaders retire they
immortalize their reigns by writing memoirs , biographies or autobiographies
where they explain the behind-the-scene machinations of their time in office
and why they made certain key decisions.
So
with Kenya playing host to former US President Bill Clinton and his daughter
Chelsea when he visited to inspect projects under Bill Clinton Foundation we
take a look at his captivating book My
Life: The Presidential Years.
Although the book is the second volume, one
does not need to have read My Life: The
Early Years, which deals with his childhood, to understand this book.
From
the 68 year-old’s budget fights with the Republicans, dealing with Haiti’s
internal political turmoil, his relation with post-communism Russia, the
Bosnian war and efforts to bring together iconic Middle East leaders Yitzhak Rabin
and Yasser Arafat the book is a walk through the American history of the 1990s.
Besides
taking the ordinary reader behind the scenes to explain how major events were
shaped and influenced, My Life:
Presidential Years is a good read for Kenyan political leaders,
particularly President Uhuru Kenyatta, since it explains how one of the most
successful politician in modern America made his decisions.
“One
of the most important decisions a President has to make is when to take the
advice of the people who work for him and when to reject it,” Clinton explains.
“Nobody can be right all the time, but its a lot easier to live with bad
decisions that you believed in when you made them than with those your advisors
says are right but your gut says are wrong”.
There
are also many incidences where self-criticizes and regrets ever making certain
decisions like failing to intervene before the Rwanda genocide the claimed
almost a million lives, getting too cozy with White House intern Monica
Lewinsky and lying about it.
The
book is also full of humour, one of Clinton’s unknown gifts, which he sometimes
humourized serious issues to unsettle his opponents and, he says, make
decision-making easier and fun.
“It
was unthinkable that two great countries (Greece and Turkey) with a real
dispute over Cyprus would actually go to war over ten acres of rock islets inhabited
by a couple of dozen shop,” Clinton writes of the two countries’ dispute over
the Imia/Kardak Islands. “I couldn’t help laughing to myself at the thought
that whether or not I succeeded in making peace in Middle East, Bosnia, or
Northern Ireland, at least I had saved some Aegean sheep”.
The
book delves into the details about the two controversies that not only
threatened his presidency but also his marriage to Hillary; the Whitewater
Scandal and the Monica Lewinsky issue.
While
he believes the Whitewater was a scandal that never was promoted by his chief
Republican rivals Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich, Clinton admits that he was as
guilty as charged in the issue of Lewinsky.
“What
I had done with Monica Lewinsky was immoral and foolish. I was deeply ashamed
of it and I didn’t it come out,” the former US President writes. “I was trying
to protect my family and myself from my selfish stupidity. I was disgusted with
myself for doing it, and in the spring, when I saw her again (daughter Chelsea),
I told her that it was wrong for me, wrong for my family, wrong for her, and I
couldn’t do it any more”.
Clinton
says he was surprised when Hillary, who he admits never spoke to him for a
month during the debacle, supported him publicly, failure to which would have
ended his presidency prematurely. He also reveals that his emotions were in
such a turmoil that he engaged the counseling of three pastors and experienced
frequent anger outbursts.
“I
was grateful that she was brave enough to participate in the counseling. We
were still each other’s best friend and I hoped we could save our marriage,”
the former US President explains. “Meanwhile I was still sleeping on the couch,
this one in the small living room that adjoined our bedroom. I slept on that
couch for two months or more…the couch was pretty comfortable, but I hoped I
wouldn’t be on it forever”.
In
The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House former White House
reporter Kate Anderson not only confirms that Hillary condemned the former
president to the couch for months during the Lewinsky saga but hit him with a
book on the head.
“The
rumour backstairs at the White House was that she clocked him with a book, and
there were bunches of books on her bedside table, including the bible,”
Anderson says. “They(household staff) heard Hillary Clinton yell, ‘you bastard’
and throw some heavy objects across the room. They all thought it was a lamp”.
Admitting
to family friend Diane Blair that she forgave her husband because Lewinsky was
a “narcissistic loony toon” Hillary, who recently declared her entry into the
race to succeed President Barack Obama, avoided this thorny issue in his latest
memoirs Hard Choices.
But
despite all these Clinton still finds some nice words about his long time wife,
who suffered a lot of flak from the media during the saga.
“Because
I was helpless to stop them, all I could was stand by her, telling the press
that America would be a better place “if everybody in this country had the
character my wife has,” the ex-president said. “My consolation was the sure
knowledge, rooted in twenty-five years of close observation, that she was a lot
tougher than they would ever be. Some guys don’t like that in a woman, but it
was one of the reasons why I loved her”.
One
critical lesson that the Kenyan society can learn from My Life: The Presidential Years is the fact in America no one is
above the law, including the President. Clinton explains his grilling by
private prosecutor Kenneth Starr and the numerous senatorial committees he had
to face.
The
book should also stir retired Kenyan politicians, or writers, to cultivate the
culture of writing memoirs, biographies and autobiographies where they explain
why they made certain decisions while in power for posterity. This, if
sustained, might just infuse some sense of integrity and responsibility among
those in power.
He
also eulogizes great friends and colleagues who died during his reign like
Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who was assassinated for his support of
Palestinian-Isreal peace initiative in 1995, Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown whose
plane crashed in Croatia in 1996 and Deputy White House Council Vince Forster
who committed suicide in 1992.
