The origin story of the Filipino strongman comes with a companion, and now appears with a twist. Published in Rappler on October 12, 2022.
I was asked to reflect on the Philippine experience with political strongmen. Well, I have four points to make, and one image to share.
First point. If the conference theme, the return of political strongmen, resonates with us in the Philippines, it is only secondarily because the son and namesake of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos is now the president. It is primarily because the brutal, foul-mouthed, chaotic Rodrigo Duterte paved the way for the return of the Marcoses.
President Duterte figures in the rogues' gallery in Ruth Ben-Guiat's Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, the book that helped redirect the spotlight to the term. Ben-Ghiat's book has many arresting anecdotes but suffers (I must agree with Francis Fukuyama, in his New York Times review) from the lack of a conceptual framework. Whichever way you define "strongman," however, you can argue that Duterte meets the broad definition: illiberal, populist, violent, authoritarian, the evangelist of the macho gospel. Duterte created the conditions that ultimately allowed Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to become president.
No comments:
Post a Comment