authoritarian society

I had to jot this one down because it follows on logically and thematically from what I was talking about this morning. We had a staff meeting and my boss chaired it. He spoke generously but in making his point he told Davon that he was now permanent and that made him responsible for his section. This means you must make sure your section runs smoothly. You must make decisions. You are responsible. If you do not take responsibility, you lose your job. So remember. You are the one responsible. You cannot keep coming to me or Adrian to ask our opinion. You make the decision or you lose your job. In other not even formal situations, I hear people saying Yu tok; Yu kam; No, yu go away; No, yu kam bek. I am too busy now. Yu no kam bek.
I think this must be a more authoritiarian society than the one I am used to. When one group jeered a speaker at a meeting last year, the elders turned as one on the group and for most that was sufficient but a couple of the elders voiced their thoughts - "Oy, you do not behave like that."
Even in church, the Chairman speaks authoritively. Leaders I think are expected to be decisive and authoritive because leadership is more a function of life and death in this society than in the more western societies where bad decisions mostly are not going to kill people - except my theory might break down with respect to the cavalier decision to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.