TEMPO.CO, Washington - DKI Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has made it to the list of Leading Global Thinkers of 2013 published in a special edition of Foreign Policy magazine.
Foreign Policy is a magazine published by one of the divisions of the Washington Post Company on matters related to foreign affairs.
The list included 134 names of the world’s most prominent leaders and thinkers, such as Russian President Vladmir Putin, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and many others.
The list was topped off by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence agent who shocked the world by revealing many of the United States’ secrets.
Foreign Policy placed Jokowi at 39 and wrote that he was listed as he is one of the few leaders in Indonesia who "clings to his humble beginnings".
"He was born poor and now makes a point of regularly walking his city's most impoverished neighborhoods, talking to citizens about their concerns. His biggest public projects — dredging a river to prevent flooding, for instance — are unglamorous but practical, and they've earned him the goodwill of his constituents," wrote Foreign Policy.
The magazine continued to say that Jokowi might be hard to beat if he opts to run for presidency next year and hopes that "he will repeat the good work he has done in his other jobs" if he ever becomes elected.
FOREIGN POLICY | ABDUL MANAN
