'The world's most effective democratically elected leader today'?
“Bad news travels. Good news doesn’t”. Thus begins veteran Singapore diplomat Kishore Mahbubani ‘s piece on president Joko Widodo of Indonesia. He has a point about the movement of news, especially his acid reflection that the world is agog about the Afghan government’s collapse but knows little and cares even less about President Widodo’s effectiveness as democratically elected leader of the most populous Muslim-majority country.
The piece, which appeared on Project Syndicate, is headlined “ The Genius of Jokowi “, so it’s obvious that the writer is prepared to argue a passionate case.
The fine detail of that case is interesting. Mr Widodo is presented as a paragon of a leader, a man of the people, a healer and a unifier. While Mr Mahbubani offers some facts and figures, he doesn’t do enough to compare and contrast the situation under President Widodo with how it was before.
Anyway, here’s Mr Mahbubani’s case in favour of Mr Widodo. Indonesia, he…
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