We tend to believe that public figures are people who have a big responsibility for our life, which in my opinion is not a misconception. They do have a big responsibility and that is the price of their position. But by expecting from them a lot of things we often forget that they are just human beings and just like any person they make mistakes too. When Turkmenistan was being led by its first president Niyazov, Turkmen people used to complain about him all the time even though they weren’t able to take any actions.
During my whole childhood, I had to believe that our president is really evil person who does not have any responsibility for the country. I used to think that he is not even concerned about the difficulties that we had and any problems that we tackled with. But those thoughts weren’t really mine; they were thoughts of many other people who surrounded me. And as a child I was tend to believe in what others say or show. So my opinion about our first president did not change until his death, after which we had to select another leader for our country.
The new president started his actions just like he promised; he increased the school years from 9 to 10, he provided telephone lines in all over the country especially concerning rural areas, he allowed students to get education in border and opened the ways to other countries by making the process of emigration easier, supported many sport activities providing good equipments and building huge sport centers and did a lot of thing during a short time, but still, people complained.
They were unhappy about even insignificant things. They kept believing in that he is not a good president to lead our country and they kept expecting form him miraculous things like he is a magician. When I came to Bulgaria to study, I was interested in other students who are from different countries, and so far I haven’t found any student who said “our president is good”. That was the reason why I realized that being a public figure is extremely responsible and at the same time dangerous position.
I imagined how hard the public figures have to work under such pressure of people’s emotions, to be true to your country and to yourself and at the same time to do your job to meet the whole nation’s expectations. When they do not make mistake they are considered not a good public figure, but when they actually make mistake, as like any other person, they are considered an evil. I am not saying that public figures are great people and we should always believe in what they say and do; what I want to say is that people should learn expecting reasonable things.
