Rulers told citizens what was good for them. Bosses told employees how to do their jobs. Rapid economic development in the 1980s had begun to erode that hierarchy. But the advent in the past five years of the Internet, e-mail, and mobile phones and the continued blossoming of satellite broadcasting have flattened that structure. Asians increasingly can talk to each other unencumbered by status.
Subordinates can question superiors.
Ideas compete on their own merit, not on the rank of their originator. That sea change has shaped the selection process for this, Asiaweek's sixth annual ranking of the region's 50 most powerful people. In the following pages, we will catalog the personalities we believe are changing not just the face of Asia, but its mind and soul. In just nine years, he has built from scratch a movement numbering in the tens of millions. His followers are so committed to him that he has rattled China's encrusted leadership.