THE TAOISEACH’S satisfaction ratings may be languishing in domestic opinion polls but Brian Cowen has certainly proved a hit with one of the world’s leading news magazines.
The weekly American magazine
Newsweek
has ranked Mr Cowen as one of the top 10 political leaders in the world.
In its world leadership ranking list, Mr Cowen skills at being a “fiscal taskmaster” wins him inclusion in the list of 10 leaders who have “managed to win serious respect”.
The magazine praises Mr Cowen and his “able finance minister” Brian Lenihan for prescribing “harsh medicine” after the economy was staggered by the banking crisis.
“His drastic austerity packages have won greater admiration abroad than among his citizens – Cowen’s ratings have plunged,” states the citation. “But if he engineers the turnaround many seem to expect he’ll no doubt be rewarded in the long run.”
A longer citation published by the magazine online laments “the Irish aren’t showing much gratitude” for Mr Cowen’s leadership.
The list also includes Britain’s prime minister David Cameron, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, China’s premier Wen Jiabao, Liberia’s first female president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the president of the tiny Maldives islands Mohamed Nasheed.
Mr Cameron is portrayed as an ambitious newcomer who has shown political daring, while Mr Sarkozy is described by a headline that might have been used for Mr Cowen: “Loved Abroad, Hated at Home”.
The spokesman for the Taoiseach said the accolade reflected what world leaders and multinational businesses leaders have been saying to the Irish Government for some time. “They have admired the way the Irish Government has taken tough decisions to ensure the correct fiscal adjustments are made. They have also recognised how difficult it has been for a small and open economy to do that.”
Opposition parties were less impressed. Labour Party deputy leader Joan Burton described the award as a “Marie Antoinette moment”.
“If you look back to the time of Marie Antoinette, she got high marks from other potentates and rulers who seemed to be far more impressed by her than were the population,” she said.
Ms Burton said that those who conducted the survey did not appreciate what is well known in Ireland: that most people blame Brian Cowen and his colleagues in Government for causing the crisis in the first place.
“People in Ireland have been very forbearing. They have not reacted as they have in Greece. My own view is that people are waiting in the long grass for Fianna Fáil and will vote them out in the next election.”
Fine Gael’s deputy finance spokesman Kieran O’Donnell said that all the independent reports on the crisis had concluded that the causes of the problems were policies that were implemented when Mr Cowen was minister for finance. He said the country was still in the throes of the crisis and that this was evidenced by the steep rise in the cost of Government borrowing on the international bond markets.
The Newsweek survey purports to be the first that ranks the best countries in the world, aggregating five different categories: education, health, quality of life, economic competitiveness and political environment.
Ireland is placed 17th in the overall rankings. The top three countries are: Finland, Switzerland and Sweden. The US is ranked 11th and the United Kingdom is ranked 14th. Ireland is ranked ninth for education, a category also topped by Finland.
SHOWING THE WAY: NEWSWEEK'S TOP 10 LEADERS:
Wen Jiabao, China: heart
David Cameron, Britain: ambitious
Manmohan Singh, India: sophisticated
Nicolas Sarkozy, France: shines abroad
King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia: reformer
Brian Cowen, Ireland: taskmaster
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia: rebuilder
Lee Myung-Bak, South Korea: skilled
Mohamed Nasheed, Maldives: green
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil: star status