Can Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi and Joko Widodo lead Asia to a new global order?

Almost two months ago, on July 22, Joko Widodo became the president-elect of Indonesia. His victory came on the back of a platform to reinvigorate a hopelessly slow bureaucracy, root out corruption and boost a lacklustre economy. Déjà vu, anyone?

By electing the former Jakarta governor to the nation's top office, Indonesians not only sent a strong message about what they want for the future of their country, but they also completed a cycle that began in late 2012 with the appointment of Xi Jinping as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, then continued with the electoral victory in May this year of Narenda Modi in India.

By the time Widodo officially moves into Merdeka Palace next month, Asia's three largest nations will all be led by reform-oriented leaders determined to retune their nations for the better.

The significance of this concurrence cannot be overstated. At a time when the West appears to be fractured and weak, from a realist perspective, the emerging countries of the East could not be better off. If anything, the "Pacific Century" finally begins now.

Both Xi and Modi have already demonstrated that their rhetoric was more than just empty promises. Both men have made and are making substantial changes to their countries that could have international implications.

Xi, similar to Widodo, inherited an economy that has fallen back down to earth after years of spectacular growth. His response has been to reduce state involvement in the allocation of key inputs like capital, energy and land, and implement a dramatic restructuring of state-owned enterprises (including the introduction of a significantly higher degree of competition). In other words, the most radical economic reforms since Deng Xiaoping .