Take Me To Your Leader!

To many in the West, Paul Kagame is Rwanda’s saviour, the man who restored the country after its recent genocide. But those who have dealt with him inside and outside the country paint a very different and much darker picture.   Guests: Noel Zihabamwe - Survivor of 1994 genocide, now a leading member of Sydney's Rwandan community  Phil Clarke - Professor of International Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London  Michela Wrong - British journalist and author      Producers: Zoe Ferguson and Linda Lopresti  Executive Producer: Amruta Slee  Sound Engineer: John Jacobs

Make Argentina Great Again. That's the catchcry Javier Milei has borrowed from his friend, Donald Trump.  Wildly brash (like Trump) deliberately unkempt (like Boris Johnson), Milei has made his way to the top job with no government experience and a whole lot of chutzpah.  And you won’t believe who – or what – set him on this path...   Guests: Dr Constanza Sanhueza - Lecturer in Political Science, Australian National University  Vera Bergengruen - TIME Washington DC reporter    Eduardo Amadeo - Diplomat, economist, and economic advisor to Javier Milei’s Security Minister      Producers: Zoe Ferguson and Linda Lopresti  Executive Producer: Amruta Slee  Sound Engineer: John Jacobs

He’s leader for life, his word is final in the highly factionalised theocratic regime of Iran and his influence extends across the flashpoints of the Middle East. Yet we know almost nothing about the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  And as you’ll hear, his loyalists defend him as stridently as his critics attack him.   Guests:  John Limbert – One of the 55 American hostages held in captivity in Iran in 1979  Arash Azizi - Iranian writer and Historian. Senior lecturer in political science and history at Clemson University  Fereshteh Sadeghi - Iranian journalist based in Tehran    Producers: Zoe Ferguson and Linda Lopresti  Executive Producer: Amruta Slee  Sound Engineer: John Jacobs

At just 35 Viktor Orban, then a fiery radical, became Europe's youngest prime minister. Since then, his political brand has undergone an astonishing change.  So how did the student dissident become a 21st Century demagogue?   Guests: Zsuzsanna Szelenyi - Program director at the CEU Democracy Institute, former Hungarian politician and author, Tainted Democracy Viktor Orban and the Subversion of Hungary  Nick Thorpe - The BBC's Central Europe correspondent  Ben Wellings - Associate Professor of politics and international relations at Monash University      Producers: Zoe Ferguson and Linda Lopresti  Executive Producer: Amruta Slee  Sound Engineer: John Jacobs

He’s Indonesia’s hard man of politics - Prabowo Subianto is a former military leader who stands accused of human rights abuses. But in the latest election campaign he pitched himself as a cute, dancing Grandpa. Now he’s the country’s newest president. So, what kind of leader will he be?   Guests: Yoes Kenawas - Research Fellow at the Atma Jaya Catholic University in Jakarta  Dr Jemma Purdey - Fellow at the Australia-Indonesia Centre at Monash University  Geoff Thompson - Former ABC foreign correspondent    Producers: Zoe Ferguson and Linda Lopresti  Executive Producer: Amruta Slee  Sound Engineer: John Jacobs