I'm seriously inclined to down-vote the whole comment community on this one except for Peter, though I won't, for their failure to challenge such an overt assertion of such an absurd claim.

I didn't challenge it because I didn't find it absurd. I've asked myself in the past whether I could think of heads of state whose orders & actions were untarnished enough that I could go ahead and call them "benevolent" without caveats, and I drew a blank.

I'd guess my definition of a benevolent leader is less inclusive than yours; judging by your child comment it seems as if you're interpreting "benevolent dictator" as meaning simply "dictators who wanted good results and got them". To me "benevolent" connotes not only good motives & good policies/behaviour but also a lack of very bad policies/behaviour. Other posters in this discussion might've interpreted it like I did.