Uruguay President José Mujica is an inspiration for some and a curiosity for others. Even a rich Middle Eastern oil sheikh wanted to buy his beaten up VW for a million bucks.
Now President Jokowi is different. Indonesia is not Uruguay, a country that you cannot ignore and has to be taken seriously. If Jokowi succeeds even Singapore leaders will feel the pressure on how to lead. He flew economy class to Singapore leaving his Presidential plane behind.
I heard he also gave a short 13 minutes presentation with powerpoint slides at the G-20 meeting.
This guy is new wine. That's good but he has to be careful not to burst old wine skins.
In an idealistic frame, I have asked myself if our leaders want to make their job many times easier they should not allow their fat pay to stop them, but watching the rest of the world you realize you can never find enough of such leaders. Nearly all poorly paid leaders are hypocrites of low salaries but amazing high incomes. Unfortunately and very risky, politics in public is always idealistic and impractical.
Jokowi is a man on a mission and Indonesia is at a point that is producing many more like him from the ground to the discredit of its elites. There will not be a place for the Jokowi types when Indonesia becomes a rich nation, but that is too far away to think about now. These leaders must be in a hurry because this moment and opportunity will be brief. Is it possible to grow Indonesia as quickly as China? I think that is what would be needed not to lose momentum and keep support high.
Power also have a stealthy way to change a man's character especially when he is very successful. Not even counting the obvious ones from parliament, Jokowi has many tests ahead to challenge him
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