For the past week at least, the name Jacinda Ardern has been in every international newspaper, her image plastered all over and the commentary on her latest actions is still ongoing, though not all of it is complimentary. Ms Ardern is the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand, and she first gained full international recognition when she attained that office after her party formed a coalition government with another political party following general elections in that country in 2017.
Nearly nine months later, the world was again agog when she became the second world leader to have a child while in office; even more so because Ms Ardern is unmarried and lives with her partner, a television presenter. And also because, as a former Mormon, she has publicly challenged some of the tenets of Christianity followed by that church and openly expressed solidarity with the LGBT community. But her extraordinary leadership in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the Muslim community in Christchurch, New Zealand, which left 50 people dead, has eclipsed all of that and will no doubt be what she is remembered for long after her tenure in office ends.
For those who might have been out of the loop for the past week or so, Ms Ardern was swift in her utter condemnation of the despicable act carried out by a white supremacist. In an address to the nation on the very night of the attack, March 15, Ms Ardern, distinctly calling it terrorism, said: “We were not chosen for this act of violence because we condone racism, because we are an enclave for extremism. We were chosen for the very fact that we are none of these things…” She refused to say the name of the suspect, and urged fellow New Zealanders to do the same, asking them to instead say the names of those who were victims of the violence.
Furthermore, she reached out immediately to close family of the victims as well as members of the Muslim community. She later donned a headscarf and attended a prayer session and a vigil. But by far her greatest stance was announcing that New Zealand would ban the sale of military-style semi-automatic guns and high-capacity magazines in an effort to prevent future mass shootings and following through with it swiftly and decisively. Legislation to this effect is headed to Parliament early next month, but the New Zealand government is already welcoming voluntary surrender of such weapons. A buy-back programme has also been announced.
Though they have been but few, Ms Ardern was also targeted by critics following her response to the crisis. As an example, a commenter in an Australian publication described her as young and ordinary, while saying that she responded the way leaders are expected to. Most would disagree with this comment, as in today’s world we have come to learn to expect very little or the worst of our political leaders. Just take a look at the calibre of leadership on display in the US, in the UK and, at the extreme end of the spectrum, in Venezuela.
Another publication, CNN to be precise, quoted “others” as rightly questioning New Zealand’s military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and stating that because of this, her leadership, though commendable, “still falls short”. One would be tempted to suspect that the very grudging praise of actions not seen before from any western world leader has something to do with Ms Ardern’s gender. Whether this is the case or not and notwithstanding it, Ms Ardern has been universally acclaimed for her exemplary courage and empathy by the UK Guardian, the New York Times and the New Yorker among others.
All that aside, the point that should be noted here is that all that Ms Ardern has done ever since the March 15 attacks was executed from a place of caring, an emotion and quality that cannot be faked. Furthermore, none of it was done for the sake of optics, or in the hope that acclaim would follow.
There have been terrorist attacks in almost every major city in the world and while some responses from leaders have offered hope that we have not all fallen into the abyss, there has also been enough shallowness from others to make us question whether that is indeed the case.
And while hints at a Nobel Peace Prize in her future might be a bit precipitate at this point, there is no ignoring the fact that Ms Ardern’s mix of empathy, sensitivity, composure and strength, in the face of extreme provocation that could easily have been answered differently, are worth emulating. This is the brand of leadership that has to potential to heal and Ms Ardern is definitely role model material.
