President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo lightened the mood and earned some big laughs by dropping some millennial friendly pop culture references into one of his speeches.
The president was in Sydney over the weekend to attend a summit of ASEAN leaders and their Australian counterparts. Many serious regional issues, such as terrorism and the Rohingya humanitarian crisis, were tackled by the politicians.
The main message of Jokowi’s speech was during a lunch meeting of business leaders alongside Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was to persuade Australian companies and banks to invest in infrastructure throughout the region, but he spiced up that dry topic by telling the crowd he wanted to share his theory for why politics had become so “colorful” in recent years.
“In one word, the cause is Netflix,” Jokowi joked. “We politicians now have to compete against Netflix to get your attention. Since the arrival of Netflix, we politicians have no choice but to turn politics into reality TV because if we don’t, all of you will watch House of Cards and Stranger Things instead of watching us.”
While in Sydney, the president also dined on crab at the home of Prime Minister Turnbull, further cementing the “batik bromance” between the two. After leaving Sydney he jetted off to New Zealand for further diplomatic talks.
Source: Coconuts
Photo courtesy of Merdeka.com