IT’S Friday afternoon in Jakarta, and Indonesia’s president is getting on his hobby horse. Mounting a gaudily painted cut-out handed to him by a solemn aide, Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, leads not just children from across the archipelago but also panting cabinet ministers on a merry dance around the grounds of the presidential palace. Some of the girls are wearing the hijab; others sport the pigtails of Japanese idol bands. Javanese boys wear the black velvet peci cap. Shy young Papuans are in grass skirts. Jokowi makes the children promise, in a pealing question-and-answer response, to go out and play more. To hammer the point home, he does so himself, taking on all comers at hoop rolling and tag. It is a struggle to imagine other leaders—Xi Jinping, say, or Theresa May—doing the same.
Blusukan-do
Jokowi’s common touch brought him to national prominence—plus a reputation for incorruptibility and getting stuff done, first as mayor of the...Continue reading
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