A Guessing Game

Lets' start a guessing game. 3 questions. Guess which country; which top leader, and which leader based on quotes made by others.

A Country

"The nation has long been hobbled by a political culture that places the ruling party's needs over those of the people"

"For six decades, the [ruling party] has appeared to have only one goal: to maintain its hold on power. It's thus promoted -- and recently reinforced -- racial policies that benefit its political base"

"The side effects, including stagnant living standards, waning competitiveness, and the humiliation of [the country's] sizable minority populations, are all overlooked in the service of [holding on to power]"

"[This country] is ensnared in the middle-income trap that South Korea and Thailand escaped years ago."

"Rather than free the economy from race-based quotas and business preferences, the ruling party has expanded them. Never mind that these policies make [the country] even less attractive to multinational companies and encourage so many of the nation's best and brightest to move to Singapore and Hong Kong"

"Philippines and Indonesia are surging ahead as this country looks backward"

"The country is proving to be all hardware and no software"

"For years, [the ruling party] acted as though top-quality roads, state-of-the-art ports and bridges, iconic skyscrapers and a swanky new capital would inevitably pave the way to prosperity."

"But economic software is even more important. And on that front, this country has never bothered to cut red tape, level the playing field for [the minorities], or introduce the competitive forces necessary to stimulate entrepreneurship."

"[This country] governing elite has clung to power without interruption since ... almost six decades ago through a combination of tight control of information, intimidation of the opposition and, until recently, robust economic growth."

"Many newspapers and television networks in [this country] are controlled by the government directly or indirectly."

"..worldwide bafflement at [a tragedy] has challenged the country’s paternalistic political culture and exposed its coddled leaders to the withering judgments of critics from around the world"

"[This country], aspiring to become a developed nation in six years, is finding that more than 50 years under one coalition and tight control over information is a mismatch for handling a rapidly growing crisis followed across the world"

"The crisis has fully exposed the dangers of allowing one party to rule a nation for six decades."

"This country is blessed with enviable natural resources. But it is willfully squandering its equally enviable human capital."

"These affirmative-action policies [of this country] stifle innovation and drive away investment. They disenfranchise the country's minorities, forcing many of them to seek their fortunes overseas."

"Civil-service and cabinet appointments should be about ability and nothing else -- not race, not sex, not age. Until and unless every lawmaker, ministry and government-linked corporation realizes they will have to answer for their actions and failings, the trust gap between the people and their government will only widen."

"It is also an ethnically polarized society where talent often does not rise to the top of government because of patronage politics within the ruling party and a system of ethnic preferences that discourages or blocks the country’s minorities, from government service."

"The longer [this country] sticks with the racial preferences, the more graft and opacity will worsen and undermine growth. The only way to unshackle the economy -- which should be performing a lot more like South Korea than Vietnam -- is to end such policies."

"[This country was recently] hailed by [the president of a superpower country] as 'an example of a dynamic economy' and touted its 'diversity, tolerance and progress' as 'a model to countries around the world'. Today, amid the global outcry over the [handling of the tragedy], such praise sounds naive. The past month has highlighted [this country]'s deepest flaws, and all-too-few of its strengths."

"Ordinary people in [another country] feel the work [of the government of this country] has not been professional.”

"Another neighboring country expressed concern about coordination effort. [This country]’s cooperation has not been positive and their officials are not responsive to requests for information"

"The government [of this country]... also released imprecise, incomplete and sometimes inaccurate information, with civilian officials sometimes contradicting military leaders"

"Information issued publicly from [the government] had been extraordinarily chaotic."

"The government [of this country] seemed evasive and confused, and [an expert] questioned why, if the remarks attributed to [the government official] were true, the government took so long to reveal evidence"

"The government (of this country)’s inconsistencies in the handling of the crisis were further highlighted when the country’s top official contradicting what other officials had said for the past three days."

A Top Leader

"Why bother when all the [this top leader's] party needs to do to stay in power is redraw voting districts, bribe the masses with fat handouts, invoke religion when necessary, and muzzle any pesky publications that dare to write about corruption and privilege?"

"It's a full-time job: For years populist handouts, gerrymandered districts, and political arrests secured the party comfortable majorities, but in last year's election the ruling coalition lost the popular vote for the first time"

"All this explains why per-capita income in a resource-rich nation with an enviable geographic position in Asia has stalled at near the $10,000 mark. [This top leader's country] is stuck in the middle-income trap because its leaders are stuck in time."

"His government has been clamping down on internal political dissent. One opposition leader once again faces the specter of jail on sodomy charges; [and another] is defending himself against sedition allegations."

"Authoritarian laws have helped keep the governing party in power — and an ascendant opposition in check."

"Early on, [he] thrilled global investors by hinting that he would scrap his party's 40-year-old affirmative-action policies, which favor [one race]. But [his party]'s troubles prompted him to expand rather than eliminate such apartheid economics."

"Since rising to the top job, he has had to divert his attention from revitalizing [the country]'s economy to maintaining [his ruling party]'s long hold on power. 

"[His] government's handling of [the tragedy] was no fluke. The fumbling exposed a political elite that's never really had to face questioning from its people, never mind the rest of the world."

"The international press has pilloried [his] government for its initial response to the crisis, which was marred by conflicting information, poor coordination with neighboring countries, defensiveness, and an apparent lack of transparency"

"His government’s lack of a clear message, compounded by a series of false leads... risks undermining its image internationally."

"The families of the victims of [a tragedy] deserve better. But then, so do [the people of the country] whom [this leader] claims to serve."

“There are big issues -- transparency, information sharing, questions associated with security. [The leaders] are not in control of the discussion and the problem is they’re not instilling confidence. Everyone wants to give them the benefit of the doubt but this is a crisis of credibility for [his] administration.”

"The crisis has led to introspection about why the government has appeared uncoordinated and unable to pin down seemingly basic facts about the [tragedy]"

"What can his government do, post-crisis , to improve its image at home and abroad? This isn't a mere PR challenge. The country needs nothing less than a political revolution."

"They’re handling a huge global issue as if it was domestic politics"

"[His] administration is sending the message that people should let [his] government tell them what they need to know, when they need to know it, and not before"

"Local media outlets critical of [this leader] are on the defensive. [His] government has by contrast been silent on efforts by Islamic conservatives to limit who can use the word "Allah" -- a campaign that has eroded [this country]'s reputation for religious tolerance."

A Leader

"Even with his nearly 20-year stint as a legislator and more than a decade in ministerial posts, how does someone like this become a transport minister in Southeast Asia's third-biggest economy?"

"He's also the scion of a powerful political family."

"He is the nephew of the country’s second prime minister, [who is also the current prime minister]’s father

"[He] was elected a vice president of [the controlling party], putting him in line to possibly succeed [the country's top leadership]."

"The lamentable manner in which [this leader] has fielded questions underscores how unaccustomed the country's leaders are to being questioned by anyone"

""It’s only confusion if you want it to be seen to be confusion," he said at a news conference that unfolded before an international audience. [He] rejected a reporter’s assertion that the search [in the tragedy] had been disordered."

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Remarks -

Feel free to give your answers in the 'comments section' in red color below. Guess one answer for each of the above 3 questions. Namely which country, which top leader, and which leader based on quotes made by others.

This guessing game it is based on quotes from respectable personalities who work in internationally credible organisations. Minimalist editing is made to preserve choices of word by the original authors and to ensure this guessing game a success. The original articles can be found below:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-11/malaysia-failing-to-manage-plane-crisis-exposes-leadership-limit.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/world/asia/malaysia-jet.html?_r=0

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-03-13/a-plane-disappears-malaysia-s-flaws-emerge

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/world/asia/missing-jet-exposes-a-dysfunctional-malaysian-elite.html?_r=0

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-04-08/missing-plane-will-haunt-malaysia-s-future