Opinion | Robots as leaders? They may be better than our current politicians

If Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah worked for your company and had fumbled her way through yet another embarrassing press conference, would you keep her on staff? Of course not. In the same vein, were United States President Donald Trump on the payroll and he’d insulted another respected entity with an overnight tweet, would you greet him in the office next morning with a welcoming smile? No, you’d tell him what a jerk he is and sack him on the spot. But finding the right replacement won’t come easily. For that reason, I can’t wait for the day robots rule.

But few people could ever hope to tick all the boxes of leadership, so societies are often governed by people with flaws, foibles and failings. Worryingly for democracies, Trump represents a new breed of politician, the celebrity leader who lacks experience in high office. But the lesson does not appear to have been learned, as the growing push to make Oprah Winfrey a candidate for the presidency in 2020 proves.

Winfrey has a cult following, compelling rags-to-billionaire-riches story, and the rousing speech against misogyny and racism she gave at the Golden Globe awards won even more fans. But a senior member of a government needs to have more than inspirational thoughts; they also need political experience. That is thankfully a reason why, at chief executive nomination time in Hong Kong, the entertainment industry’s whispers that beloved stars Andy Lau or Chow Yun-fat should be in the running go no further.

There is no perfect leader. Winston Churchill was as flawed as he was great, Nelson Mandela was no saint and you don’t have to look too deeply into how Abraham Lincoln governed to see how inept he could be. Lee Kuan Yew without doubt was great, but his methods and civil liberties did not always mesh. Xi Jinping needs the test of time for a proper assessment.