Leadership in the 'i' of the beholder

I didn’t take this job to delve into the musings of fashionistas but I did find this quote from Coco Chanel an alluring reference to the uptake of the iPad in government in 2010.
“It is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure.” It has seemed that way.
I’ll also add that in no way am I plugging Apple products here, but merely acknowledging what I’ve seen in the many interviews, press conferences and events I’ve attended in the Asia Pacific region this year: that the iPad is to government leadership in 2010, what the mobile phone was to Gordon Gekko in the popular 1981 film Wall Street: a symbol.
As Gekko’s mobile phone—however big—represented Wall Street largesse, the iPad in 2010 is a symbol of the forward-thinking leader.
The iPad has allowed leaders to pose as connected digital citizens when they don’t reply to their own emails and don’t update their own Twitter feeds. It can be confusing.
I wonder, has a device ever been used with such wanton by government leaders? It’s a ready-made manual PR machine, exemplified by two of Europe’s best practitioners: British Prime Minister David Cameron was quick to be photographed poking its touchscreen, he was gifted two iPads as housewarming presents following the May election; and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is known to be an avid user.
Less known is the Asian addiction to the tablet. I was at a conference in Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago where I learned that the Chief Executive had to be warned against effusive Apple iPad reviews during public addresses. He’s rarely seen in public without it.
So too the interview I recently did with Malaysia’s Chief Justice, Zaki Azmi, who will feature in our February issue. He played with his iPad throughout the two-hour long interview I did with him at his office in Putrajaya.
Azmi has presided over a dramatic overhaul in the Malaysian judiciary that will see a massive backlogue of 350,000 civil cases and 80,000 criminal cases nilled—wiped out—by April 2011.
He’s done this through a number of methods: increasing the number of judges (from 90 to 137) and their salaries; setting up separate civil cases courts; clearing cases over the weekends; and, encouraging lawyers to mediate before going to court.
On top of that he’s brought the judiciary into the new century through an e-court system that tracks cases and cuts down delays; cases are all electronically filed, courts all use a queue management and case management system, and Azmi, as he shows me himself, responds personally to case complaints from around the country: via his iPad. It’s a good touch—pun intended.
But it shows some leaders are not all for show. Like the Roman philosopher Seneca cautioned, leaders shouldn’t mistake life’s accessories for life itself: “they are like them that go too fast in a maze: their very haste confuses them.”