Khaberni - A Prime Minister with a pen and notebook in his pocket - a beautiful symbolic image of nostalgia for a bygone era, but today it is more like a leadership blunder in an era governed by data and algorithms. I do not write this to undermine the value of field visits or reading simple citizen notes; rather, I point out that insisting on managing the state through a small notebook and pen, after more than a year at the helm of government, indicates institutional danger: management remains prone to randomness, and partial problems are solved while major strategic issues are neglected.
Digital transformation is not a luxury; it is a condition for survival and economic and social competitiveness. International institutions, including the World Bank, which monitor and support digital governance policies, confirm that digitization reshapes the economy and the state and is a necessary infrastructure for growth and service management. Likewise, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics can increase the government's ability to predict, discover patterns, and improve resource allocation—then transform decisions from purely individual intuition to evidence-based policy. This is confirmed by systematic studies and practices of successes in transformation in leading countries and companies, and there are practical examples that showed that government entities that built frameworks for data analysis and institutional intelligence achieved faster crisis response, more effective spending options, and improved public confidence.
Leadership is not just about being an attractive personality or having a field presence; it is the ability to transform scattered information into a comprehensive strategy. A notebook may help you remember a complaint here or there, but it lacks the capabilities of quantitative linking, does not condense performance indicators, nor does it provide a model for predicting the cumulative impact of policies. Management by subjective judgments produces short-term decisions and symptomatic treatment — which explains the "modest" performance indicators seen despite more than a year in office.
The government failed in party consultation and in testing seriousness; authentic leadership is measured by its partnership, not by its isolation. If the Prime Minister is serious about reforming the state and modernization, he does not leave dialogues with parties and relevant parties stagnant, especially since dialogue and political participation is a royal directive to invest in national consensus. Engaging parties does not mean abandoning executive sovereignty, but rather deepening legitimacy and reducing street congestion, and it gives the government a mix of expertise in drawing long-term policies. Ignoring party consultation leads the government to isolated management suffering from weak representation and effectiveness.
In the context of a political reading of leadership behavior, there is a folk saying: "If it was going to rain, it would have clouded over" - meaning that intentions alone are not enough; the presence of tools, data, and a methodological approach is required to transform intentions into outcomes. Many political executives fill their time with field appearances and photos of visits, but they lack the structure to transform those visits into measurable and executable policies. In a world governed by indicators and results, intention without data is like a prayer without action.
Inspired by the thought of Machiavelli and contemporary interpretations by Robert Greene, "The Fox" relies on mastering hiding intentions and showing weakness when necessary, then temporarily withdrawing to return at a moment of strength. However, transforming these cunning tactics into a state management approach means political brilliance as much as it means dressing incompetence in the guise of intelligence. When power indulges in creating appearances and manipulating impressions, it makes people think that the leader is in control while the reality is entirely different. Such an approach may achieve limited tactical gains in the short term, but it consumes public trust capital and undermines institutional foundations in the long term.
If the Prime Minister is serious about reform, he must move from individual impression management to an institutional approach based on data, starting with a national digital roadmap that establishes a safe environment for storing and analyzing information, and reinforces it by creating an independent unit for studies and producing performance indicators and objective policy evaluations. Moreover, employing artificial intelligence should be a supportive tool that enhances efficiency without excluding ethics or accountability, with clear governance controls. And most importantly, real consultative channels with parties and civil forces should be opened, so that the partnership becomes a lever for legitimacy and national consensus instead of just being a formal show.
