Screening stations have been set up at Auckland Airport to combat fears surrounding coronavirus. Photo / File
Screening stations have been set up at Auckland Airport to combat fears surrounding coronavirus. Photo / File
For many world leaders, the coronavirus offers both a distraction from the usual political power games and a massive incentive to get their act together.
The impact of the virus has diverted attention from the machinations of politics and all the complications of concealing these from citizens while presenting ahuge challenge to their ability to lead in crisis.
This is most noticeable in the USA, UK and Australia where you can almost hear the politicians' sighs of relief as the headlines light up with stories about Covid-19, smothering all coverage of political rorts, skulduggery and various forms of political incompetence.
In Australia, the emerging revelations about funding grants being made to marginal seats just prior to the elections is sliding off the media agenda which must be a relief to Scott Morrison and his sidekick, Peter Dutton.
In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson must find this tactical distraction from the ongoing mess that is Brexit.
In the States, President Trump is relying on the fake fact that he knows everything and therefore needs no advice from public health expertise.
In the States, President Trump is relying on the fake fact that he knows everything and therefore needs no advice from public health expertise. Photo / File
To create a diversion, he has appointed Vice President Mike Pence to lead the health response.
This means he can distance himself from failure, and failure is a possibility because Mike Pence is considered by many to be just as, if not more, incompetent than Trump.
A recent exchange provides an insight into this dynamic. US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that Mike Pence was not the right person to lead the response to coronavirus because "he does not believe in science".
She added that: "He is not a medical doctor. He is not a health expert. He is not qualified nor positioned in any way to protect our public health."
Trump ally Ted Cruz then challenged her expertise and knowledge of such matters.
She has an award for microbiology from MIT which did silence some of the criticism but it does spotlight the prevailing disdain for "experts" and people who might know stuff.
Here in New Zealand, the potential risks to health have overshadowed the current investigations into party funding, allowing both the leaders of National and NZ First to avoid the topic while the Prime Minister steps up to provide leadership in crisis.
As noted in China, there has been a powerful undercurrent of dissatisfaction with their leaders linked to the initial attempts to conceal the outbreak from its own people.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson during their update on Covid-19. Photo / File
In Hong Kong, the long-running agitation in the streets for democracy has been silenced as large gatherings present an increased risk of contact and infection.
For totalitarian regimes the coronavirus is both a reprieve, because they can use this as a reason to ban public protests but this may become a tipping point.
If they fail to lead the response to this new health crisis, they could lose their power to control their populations.
This world-wide health crisis will test the quality of leadership everywhere. It presents a huge political challenge.
Leaders will be judged by their people on how it is managed and scorned if they are seen to have failed them.
• Terry Sarten (aka Tel) is a writer, musician and social worker. Feedback: tgs@inspire.net.nz
