Translator: Ellen Maloney
Reviewer: Nada Qanbar I feel like it's a bit
of an anti-climax going last, we've had so many talented people here, we've had so many people
do some amazing things. I don't have that many skills, I can't create sounds with my voice
by pressing different buttons, but what I can do is poetry,
I'm a spoken word artist. Last year was difficult, if I'm honest, because I was told
to talk about democracy. I'm not too engaged when it comes
to political terms like that, and it's difficult to find words
that rhyme with democracy, actually. (Laughter) You know you have: democracy, biography, a couple of other -ographies
they wouldn't approve of in Parliament. (Laughter) Hope I don't get in trouble for that. This year they said I could discuss
and talk about leadership. I realized that I actually don't know
that much about leadership as a whole. Everything I'm going to say is my opinion,
and what I think leadership should be. It will be relevant to some of you, may not be relevant to some of you,
but please don't come up after giving me political
statements and manifestos and tell me what's right and wrong. I'm just stating my opinion,
that's what I do as an artist. It's called "Follow The Leader." I have to explain, spoken word
is basically like poetry, or if you want to sound more cool,
it's more like rap. But... (Laughter) Now, I don't know
that much about leadership. All I know is that as kids, we all wanted to be the Red Ranger. (Music) Now if you don't understand
the significance of being the Red Ranger, I feel very sorry for you. because it means you were either
born way too late to appreciate the birth of one
of the worlds greatest legacies, or you were born way too early to be born
in one of the world's greatest centuries. But for those of you who don't know,
being the Red Ranger meant that you were part
of an esteemed group of individuals known as the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Now as kids, we wanted
to be the Red Ranger because not being the Red Ranger, not only meant you got the biggest sword, the biggest zord, and you got to scream,
"It's morphin time!" before every fight, but it also meant that you were
the leader of the group. Now as kids we all wanted
to be the Red Ranger. Actually, I wanted to be the Black Ranger
for obvious reasons, but... (Laughter) but can we agree that as kids,
we were unafraid to be Power Rangers, heroes, leaders? As a matter of fact, we were eager
to be anything more than meager. So can we then agree that mediocrity,
being average, is something that we learn. Not learn, but are taught. Maybe Socrates can expand
more on this thought; what is leadership? He defined it as the challenge
to be something more than average, something we were willing to accept
before life put us in the deep end, because as we get older,
it then starts to deepen. Most of us only want to be front in line
to the pub or the club on the weekend. But is that our fault? Because from when I was young, I was told, "Suli, one day you are going
to have to lead your own life." But this was then proceeded by me
being taught how to follow. In school I learned to follow the rules. The first game we ever learned to play
was "Follow the Leader." I always had to make sure
I understood the following, my boss always made sure
I followed up on everything. My parents taught me to follow the system,
follow religion, follow tradition. And then they said they'll kill me
if I ever followed in their footsteps. But the severity of this
never really hit home because even in my favorite TV show, Dorothy told me to, "Follow
the yellow brick road." Ironically, one thing I was never taught
to follow was my heart. It was like follow fashion
before you follow passion, so you can understand
why my mum seemed bitter when I told her I wanted to be in a band, especially as I explained
that I wanted to be the lead singer. Also I couldn't sing. But the world doesn't need new leaders, because leaders come and go
like common colds. If you ask me, the next leader should be
a community guided by a common goal, one which everyone
could contribute, young and old. I never understood why
you had to be 18 to vote, because that's way too late to clean up
the mess made by the previous generation. The world doesn't need new leaders. The world needs new ideas; ideas that tell me I don't have to walk
like that or talk like this, that me and you can be different. Because listen to this,
and this is wisdom: people die, but ideas live forever. Because great ideas are all
the greatest leaders ever where. if you look at it,
Abraham Lincoln; equality. Julius Caesar; strength. Mahatma Gandhi; peace. Nelson Mandela; unity. Princess Diana; empathy. Mother Theresa; compassion. I'm not saying I agree
with all their actions, but I agree with their ideas. Maybe the scariest reality
is that we are all leaders, because we all have ideas
but somewhere in between our adult lives and nine-to-fives,
we're pacified to believe we're satisfied. When deep down inside you, you, you, you,
there's a Red Ranger, fully suited up, ready to swing
at whatever life throws up. Don't get distracted by the noise
the world throws to blind you, because deep down,
there is a voice inside you, wondering why you haven't spoken to it
in years because you know what I realised? We don't always get wiser with age. Society just breeds us to forget, or remember things that we already knew
were true in the first place. There's not that much more I need to say, just that you be Red tomorrow
and let me be Green today. We can change the world either way as long
as we're unafraid to make mistakes, and keen to play. And then you can see, as long as we stop
looking for others to lead the way that creating a better world
is a piece of cake. We don't need leaders; we need ideas. Thank you very much. (Applause)
