Abstract
Authoritarian movements are on the march globally. Southeast Asia is no exception. Our aim in this chapter is to gain a sense of the dynamics of this trend in Southeast Asia. Democracy is definitely on the wane in the region, with only Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Myanmar meeting the criteria of having competitive electoral politics and the non-monopolization of power by any single individual or institution, to use the narrowest definition of democracy. Moreover, with the exception of Indonesia, one would find it difficult to characterize the others as being in a healthy state. In Myanmar, the military is non-accountable to the fragile civilian administration led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Malaysia’s democratic system is built on the institutionalized supremacy of one ethnic group, the Malays, over another, the Chinese. And while the Philippine government continues to retain the trappings of electoral democracy, under the presidency of President Rodrigo Duterte, it is fast sliding into strongman rule, with widespread state-sponsored extra-judicial executions carried out with impunity and a largely successful concerted executive effort to subjugate Congress and the Supreme Court.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Michael Dickison, “Hun Sen’s Paradox: Absolute Power With Limits,” The Cambodia Daily (June 1, 2017) https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-paradox-absolute-power-with-limits-130813/.
- 2.
Lee Morgenbesser, “Misclassification on the Mekong: The Origins of Hun Sen’s personalist Dictatorship,” Democratization, Vol. 25, No. 2 (2018), http://www.tandfonline.com.proxy.binghamton.edu/doi/full/10.1080/13510347.2017.1289178.
- 3.
Stuart Grudgings and Prak Chan Thui, “Insight: Land conflict, Impunity Dim Cambodia’s Awakening,” Reuters (November 13, 2012) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-protests/insight-land-conflict-impunity-dim-cambodias-awakening-idUSBRE8AB17J20121112.
- 4.
Mark Grimditch, The Engine of Economic Growth: An Overview of Private Investment Policies, Trends, and Projects in Cambodia (Bangkok: Focus on the Global South, 2016), p. 18.
- 5.
Prasanth Parameswaran, “Cambodian Land Conflicts Surge,” The Diplomat (February 21, 2015) https://thediplomat.com/2015/02/cambodian-land-conflicts-surge/.
- 6.
Kong Meta, Soth Koemsoeun, and Phak Seangly, “Authorities Deny Six Killed in Kratie Clash between Protesters, Soldiers,” Phnom Penh Post (February 8, 2018). http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/updated-authorities-deny-six-killed-kratie-clash-between-protesters-soldiers.
- 7.
Grudgings and Thui. “Insight: Land conflict, Impunity Dim Cambodia’s Awakening.”
- 8.
Cambodian Center for Human Rights, “Fact Sheet: Escalation of Violent Repression of Trade Union Activists,” Phnom Penh (March 2016). http://www.cchrcambodia.org/index_old.php?title=-Escalation-of-Violent-Repression-of-Trade-Union-Activities&url=media/media.php&p=factsheet_detail.php&fsid=69&id=5&lang=eng.
- 9.
Charles Main, SEZs and Value Extraction from the Mekong: A Case Study on the Control and Exploitation of Land and Labor in Cambodia and Myanmar’s Special Economic Zones (Bangkok: Focus on the Global South, 2017), p. 16.
- 10.
Main, SEZ and Value Extraction from the Mekong, p. 23.
- 11.
Geoffrey Cain, “Fake News and the Death of Democracy in Cambodia,” The Nation (November 21, 2017). https://www.thenation.com/article/fake-news-and-the-death-of-democracy-in-cambodia/.
- 12.
Geoffrey Cain, “Fake News and the Death of Democracy in Cambodia.”
- 13.
Naruemon Thabchumpon and Duncan McCargo, “Urbanized Villagers in the 2010 Thai Redshirt Protests: Not Just Poor Farmers?,” Asian Survey, Vol 51, No 6 (November–December 2011), p. 1018.
- 14.
Ukrist Pathamanand, “Network Thaksin: Structure, Roles, and Reaction,” in Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth, and Power (Singapore: NUS Press, 2016), p. 153.
- 15.
Kanokrat Lertchoosakul, The Rise of the Octobrists in Contemporary Thailand (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2016), p. 262.
- 16.
Pathamanand, “Network Thaksin: Structure, Roles, and Reaction,” pp. 153–154.
- 17.
Lertchoosakul, The Rise of the Octobrists in Contemporary Thailand, pp. 243–244.
- 18.
Phongpaichit and Baker, Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth, and Power, p. 240.
- 19.
Thirayut Boonmee, quoted in Lertchoosakul, The Rise of the Octobrists in Contemporary Thailand, p. 237.
- 20.
Quoted in Walden Bello, “Military Suspends Class Conflict in Thailand,” Telesur, August 8, 2014, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Military-Suspends-Class-Conflict-in-Thailand-20140806-0010.html.
- 21.
Quoted in Phongpaichit and Baker, Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth, and Power, p. 240.
- 22.
“Poverty in the Philippines,” Asian Development Bank. https://www.adb.org/countries/philippines/poverty.
- 23.
See A. Martinez, M. Western, and W. Tomazewski, “Is There Income Mobility in the Philippines?,” Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, Vol 28, No. 1 (2014), pp. 96–115. According to the National Statistical Coordination Board, people from the high-income class, which account for between 15.1 and 15.9 percent of the country’s population, enjoyed a 10.4-percent annual growth in income in 2011. In contrast, incomes of people in the middle-income segment grew by only 4.3 percent and incomes of those in the low-income group by 8.2 percent. Overall inequality thus increased as the incomes of the top bracket increased faster than other brackets. Michelle Remo, “Rich-Poor Divide in Philippines Widening,” Philippine Daily Inquirer (July 10, 2013). http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/441817/rich-poor-divide-in-ph-widening.
- 24.
Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See (London: Fourth Estate, 2014), p. 63.
- 25.
Some of the points made below were originally laid out in Walden Bello, “The Spider Spins his Web,” Philippine Sociological Review, Vol 65 (2017).
- 26.
“SWS: Duterte Receives Record-high Net Satisfaction Rating,” SunStar Manila (July 7, 2017). http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2017/07/07/sws-duterte-receives-record-high-net-satisfaction-rating-551578.
- 27.
Miguel Syjuco, “Fake News Floods the Philippines,” New York Times (October 24, 2017). https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/opinion/fake-news-philippines.html.
- 28.
Syjuco, “Fake News Floods the Philippines.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/opinion/fake-news-philippines.html.
- 29.
“The General Running Duterte’s Anti-drug War,” New York Times (June 2, 2017). https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/world/asia/the-general-running-dutertes-antidrug-war.html?emc=edit_th_20170603&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57179294&_r=0.
- 30.
“The Philippines’ Drug War Death Denial Complex,” Human Rights Watch (May 9, 2017). https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/05/09/philippines-drug-war-deaths-denial-complex.
- 31.
Ted Regencia, “Senator: Rodrigo Duterte’s Drug War has Killed 20,000,” Al-Jazeera (February 22, 2018). https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/senator-rodrigo-duterte-drug-war-killed-20000-180221134139202.html.
- 32.
Statement at solidarity dinner at Del Pan Sports Complex, July 1, 2016, quoted in I-Defend, “End Impunity, Stand Up for Human Rights, Uphold Due Process” (August 12, 2016).
- 33.
“Duterte on Drug-related Deaths: Expect 20,000 to 30,000 More, “ABS/CBN News” (October 28, 2016). http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/27/16/duterte-on-drug-related-deaths-expect-20000-or-30000-more.
- 34.
Speech before a conference of local government officials carried over DZRH (March 14, 2017).
- 35.
‘Drug Users Aren’t Human,’ Says Duterte, GMA News Online (August 28, 2016). http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/579277/drug-users-aren-t-human-says-duterte/story/.
- 36.
Quoted in Marichu Villanueva, “Duterte Likens Addicts to Zombies,” Philippine Star (August 24, 2016) http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2016/08/24/1616655/duterte-likens-drug-addicts-zombies.
- 37.
Quoted in Marichu Villanueva, “Duterte Likens Addicts to Zombies.” http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2016/08/24/1616655/duterte-likens-drug-addicts-zombies.
- 38.
Quoted in Marichu Villanueva, “Duterte Likens Addicts to Zombies.” http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2016/08/24/1616655/duterte-likens-drug-addicts-zombies.
- 39.
Interview with Dr. Yo Ying Ma, Binghamton (March 5, 2017).
- 40.
Here, I find Arno Mayer’s distinction among “reactionaries,” “conservatives,” and “counterrevolutionaries” still very useful. Fascism, in Mayer’s typology, falls into the counterrevolutionary category. See Mayer.
- 41.
This is not to say that liberal democracy was not also a subject of derision on the part of Hitler and Mussolini. However, the principal target of both leaders was the socialist project and the workers’ movement and they played on the threat of a working-class revolution to unite the right on their way to power.
- 42.
See Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: Free Press, 1992).
References
Bello, Walden. 2014. Military Suspends Class Conflict in Thailand. Telesur. August 8. http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Military-Suspends-Class-Conflict-in-Thailand-20140806-0010.html.
———. 2017. “Rodrigo Duterte: A Fascist Original,” in Nicole Curato, ed., A Duterte Reader: Critical Essays on Rodrigo Duterte’s Early Presidency (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2017), pp. 77–91.
Cain, Geoffrey. 2017. Fake News and the Death of Democracy in Cambodia. The Nation. November 21. https://www.thenation.com/article/fake-news-and-the-death-of-democracy-in-cambodia/.
Cambodian Center for Human Rights. 2016. Fact Sheet: Escalation of Violent Repression of Trade Union Activists. Phnom Penh. March.
Dickison, Michael. 2017. Hun Sen’s Paradox: Absolute Power With Limits. The Cambodia Daily. June 1. https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-paradox-absolute-power-with-limits-130813/.
Doerr, Anthony. 2014. All the Light We Cannot See. London: Fourth Estate.
Fukuyama, Francis. 1992. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Free Press.
Grimditch, Mark. 2016. The Engine of Economic Growth: An Overview of Private Investment Policies, Trends, and Projects in Cambodia. Bangkok: Focus on the Global South.
Grudgings, Stuart, and Prak Chan Thui. 2012. Insight: Land Conflict, Impunity Dim Cambodia’s Awakening. Reuters. November 13. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-protests/insight-land-conflict-impunity-dim-cambodias-awakening-idUSBRE8AB17J20121112.
Lertchoosakul, Kanokrat. 2016. The Rise of the Octobrists in Contemporary Thailand. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
Main, Charles. 2017. SEZs and Value Extraction from the Mekong: A Case Study on the Control and Exploitation of Land and Labor in Cambodia and Myanmar’s Special Economic Zones. Bangkok: Focus on the Global South.
Martinez, A., M. Western, and W. Tomazewski. 2014. Is There Income Mobility in the Philippines? Asian-Pacific Economic Literature 28 (1): 96–115.
Meta, Kong, Soth Koemsoeun, and Phak Seangly. 2018. Authorities Deny Six Killed in Kratie Clash Between Protesters, Soldiers. Phnom Penh Post. February 8. http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/updated-authorities-deny-six-killed-kratie-clash-between-protesters-soldiers.
Morgenbesser, Lee. 2018. Misclassification on the Mekong: The Origins of Hun Sen’s Personalist Dictatorship. Democratization 25 (2). http://www.tandfonline.com.proxy.binghamton.edu/doi/full/10.1080/13510347.2017.1289178.
Pathamanand, Ukrist. 2016. Network Thaksin: Structure, Roles, and Reaction. In Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth, and Power, ed. Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker. Singapore: NUS Press.
Regencia, Ted. 2018. Senator: Rodrigo Duterte’s Drug War Has Killed 20,000. Al-Jazeera. February 22. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/senator-rodrigo-duterte-drug-war-killed-20000-180221134139202.html.
Remo, Michelle. 2013. Rich-Poor Divide in Philippines Widening. Philippine Daily Inquirer. July 10. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/441817/rich-poor-divide-in-ph-widening.
Syjuco, Miguel. 2017. Fake News Floods the Philippines. New York Times. October 24. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/opinion/fake-news-philippines.html.
Thabchumpon, Naruemon, and Duncan McCargo. 2011. Urbanized Villagers in the 2010 Thai Redshirt Protests: Not Just Poor Farmers? Asian Survey 51 (6). November–December.
Villanueva, Marichu. 2016. Duterte Likens Addicts to Zombies. Philippine Star. August 24. http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2016/08/24/1616655/duterte-likens-drug-addicts-zombies.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bello, W. (2019). Neoliberalism, Contentious Politics, and the Rise of Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia. In: Berberoglu, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Social Movements, Revolution, and Social Transformation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92354-3_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92354-3_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-92353-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-92354-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)