曼德拉：二十世紀最非凡的領袖

The list of nominees for greatest man of the 20th century is as short as it is extraordinary.

Franklin Roosevelt is the obvious American candidate. He guided the United States safely through the century's gravest traumas, the Great Depression and World War II. His indelible New Deal imprint still shapes America today.

The British would surely nominate Winston Churchill, the charismatic wartime prime minister who saved his nation from the Nazis.

Let us not forget giants of science like Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison. Or certainly Mohandas Gandhi, whose strategy of peaceful resistance shucked India's colonial yoke and inspired Martin Luther King Jr.

But the list would not be complete without the name of Nelson Mandela, the remarkable South African who died Thursday at 95. It's hard to name anyone, anywhere, in any time whose life is quite a match for his.

OTHER VIEWS: 'That is not right'

Like King and Gandhi, Mandela led his people to freedom, ending the apartheid rule of South Africa's brutal white-minority regime. But neither of those men, nor the others mentioned here, was put to such an extraordinary personal test.

All you need to know to grasp the uniqueness of Mandela is this: He spent 27 years in prison, most of them in solitary confinement pounding rocks at the notorious Robben Island prison. He was given no hope and allowed little contact with the outside world. Yet instead of yielding to his plight — or betraying his cause by speaking a few words that could have set him free — he persevered, leading in absentia against all odds and emerging victorious, a leader of such stature that his oppressors could not stand against him.

And then, at his moment of triumph, with the presidency of South Africa in his hands, he sought not revenge for all that had been done to him but racial peace for his people, black and white, which — incredibly — he achieved.

Such is the power of history's few truly great leaders and the examples they set. If Mandela could suffer as he did without seeking vengeance, then how could others do any less? And how could the nation's fearful and suspicious white minority turn away the olive branch?

Whether Mandela's legacy can endure remains an open question.

Unlike the United States at its founding, South Africa has not been blessed with a succession of great leaders. Since Mandela's retirement in 1999, the presidency has been held by a succession of lackluster men, and so the deep problems left behind by apartheid have festered.

Crime and illiteracy are rampant, as is corruption. The unemployment rate is 25%, and far worse among the young. Life expectancy, barely over 50 years, is among the world's lowest.

As long as Mandela survived, even with his capacity ravaged by his age and the harshness of his life, the simmering South African cauldron could not bubble over. No one dared upset their beloved Madiba.

Perhaps that cannot last. What South Africa needs, like so many other strife-torn nations, is another Mandela. But such leaders are the rarest of things. They attain the impossible and pass on. But they are remembered. They are admired, and to the extent that they are emulated, their impact lives on.

No one will soon forget Nelson Mandela, if not the greatest man of the 20th century, certainly the most extraordinary.二十世紀最偉大的人的入圍者名單因其與衆不同性而不長。

富蘭克林·羅斯福是當然的美國候選人。他指導美國安然度過百年最嚴重創傷，大蕭條和第二次世界大戰。他不可磨滅的新政烙印至今仍在改變着美國。

英國肯定會提名溫斯頓·丘吉爾，這個具有超凡魅力的戰時首相從納粹中拯救了整個不列顛民族。

讓我們不要忘記科學巨人，如阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦或托馬斯·愛迪生。當然還有莫罕達斯·甘地，他的非暴力不合作策略使得印度擺脫了殖民地的束縛，並且啓發了馬丁·路德·金。

然而，這個名單如果沒有納爾遜·曼德拉的名字，就會變得不完整。這位政績卓越的南非總統於12月5日與世長辭，享年95歲。我們很難說出有任何人，在任何地方和任何時間裏，能與他的人生相媲美。

其它觀點：“那是不正確的”

與金和甘地一樣，曼德拉率領他的人民爭取自由，結束了南非殘酷的少數白人政權的種族隔離統治。但無論那些人，還是在這裏提到的其他人，都沒有被落入到如此非同尋常的個人考驗之中。

你要知道的所有關於能夠領會曼德拉獨特性的事蹟是：他在監獄中度過了27年，其中大部分時間都是在臭名昭著的羅本島監獄中，單獨監禁。沒有人給他希望，也允許他與外界有什麼的聯繫。然而，他並沒有對這樣的困境所屈服——或是說幾句能讓他獲得自由的話而背叛他的事業——他一直不屈不撓，抵擋住了困難重重，並且最終獲得了勝利。他就是一個連他的壓迫者都無法抵抗他的領導人。

然後，在他獲勝的時刻，並擁有了南非總統的權力，曼德拉並沒有想方設法去報復那些曾經迫害過他的人，而是以種族和解的態度面對他的人民——無論黑人還是白人。他都出乎意料地做到了。

這就是歷史上爲數不多的真正偉大的領袖的力量，以及他們樹立的榜樣。一如曼德拉所做到的，如果他可以忍住不去復仇，那麼別人怎麼會做的比他差？而且這個國家擔驚受怕且心存疑慮的少數白人又怎麼能夠放棄象徵和平的橄欖枝？

曼德拉的遺產是否可以保留，這是一個懸而未決的問題。

與美國國家創建之時不同，南非並沒有持續不斷的偉大領袖的領導。自1999年曼德拉退休以來，一直由幾位平淡無奇的總統來統治南非，因此種族隔離遺留下來的深層次的問題已經一發不可收拾。

貪污腐敗、犯罪行爲和文盲問題非常普遍。失業率爲25%，在年輕人當中，情況更爲糟糕。平均壽命僅僅超過50歲，是世界上最低的水平。

只要曼德拉在世，即使是他的能力被壽命和無情的歲月所摧殘，整個處於溫水煮表青蛙狀態的南非就不會炸鍋。沒有人敢於讓心愛的馬迪巴傷心沮喪。

也許這維持不了太久。像許多其它衝突不斷的國家一樣，南非需要的是像曼德拉這樣的領導人。但是，能遇到這樣的領導者是不常見的事情。他們能做到不可能做到的事，並且將之傳遞下去。但是他們被所有人銘記於心。他們受到世人的欽佩，從這個意義上來說，他們被世人仿效，他們的影響力永世長存。

沒有人能夠很快忘記納爾遜·曼德拉。如果他不是20世紀最偉大的人物，肯定也會是最非凡的領袖人物。