{"id":66731,"date":"2019-12-14T17:03:26","date_gmt":"2019-12-14T22:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=66731"},"modified":"2019-12-14T17:03:26","modified_gmt":"2019-12-14T22:03:26","slug":"shoot-first-ask-questions-later-policy-of-philippines-strong-man-cum-populist-president-rodrigo-duterte-dubbed-as-punisher-has-not-yielded-good-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=66731","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shoot First Ask Questions Later\u2019 Policy of Philippines Strong Man Cum Populist President Rodrigo Duterte Dubbed as \u201cPunisher\u201d Has Not Yielded Good Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Kishali Pinto Jayawrdene<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Manila this week, there are chilling reminders of how a \u2018strongman\u2019 President with a penchant for bad-mouthing those whom he dislikes and spearheading summary justice against alleged drug traffickers remains popular with his people despite all the hard evidence showing that the country has really not progressed under his rule. \u2018We like him. He is not politically correct\u2019 says a well known businesswoman in Metro-Manila, \u2018He says things for what they are.\u2019<\/p>\n


\nReality checks for \u2018strongmen\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte revels in being referred to as the \u2018Punisher\u2019, a nickname that clung to him when, as mayor of Davao, he \u2018cleaned\u2019 the city by alleged complicity with vigilante justice. Squads of killers went around shooting anyone \u2018associated\u2019 with drug crimes, resulting unsurprisingly in the deaths of law abiding citizens. But this ominous label, rather than hindering him, actually helped to win a national vote of confidence.Upon being elected as President in 2016, his pugnacious attitude did not lessen but got stronger as he vowed that he would personally take the lives of drug users.<\/p>\n

Some months ago, former President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena quoted this policy with approval, complaining that he was only constrained by the fact that the law did not permit such drastic steps here. But for the former President and others who cheer such asinine statements, a reality check is long overdue.<\/p>\n

Studies have shown that the notorious \u2018shoot first, ask questions later\u2019 policy of the Filipino President have not yielded good results. On the contrary, as fiercely anti-Duterte parliamentarian (and as an aside, currently holding the directly elected post of Vice-President in an interesting constitutional curiosity), Leni Robredo reminded just weeks ago, the \u201ckilling of the innocent\u201d must stop.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

She has been leading the charge in condemning the Duterte policy that has encouraged thousands of state-sponsored killings. But such committed opposition is rare. By and large, facts and statistics do not appear to matter to his adoring fans. \u2018He has marketed himself very well as a man challenging the system\u2019 an academic says to me with a shrug, \u2018the fact that he is very much part of the system and thrives off it, does not matter. It is the marketing that counts\u2019 he adds. <\/p>\n

And the fact that \u2018Western\u2019 agencies have targeted him in their crosshairs has only increased his allure with his constituents. Both the United Nations and the International Criminal Court have commenced preliminary inquiries into the alleged extrajudicial killings argued by some to amount to crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

The impact of \u2018no-nonsense\u2019 agendas<\/strong><\/p>\n

And indeed, the similarities are interesting to say the least. Sri Lanka\u2019s \u2018Terminator\u2019 (as referred to by his brother, the campaign manager of his Presidential bid no less), Gotabhaya Rajapaksa also campaigned on a similar no-nonsense political agenda. In both cases, the reputations of fearsomeness stamped their personalities but seemed to do no real harm in the eyes of the electorate.<\/p>\n

But after coming into Presidential office, Duterte\u2019s greatest ire is reserved for journalists. He spews insults to foreign correspondents with ease. Filipino media groups say that attacks on journalists are unprecedented in the open and barbaric manner in which they occur, even when assessed against previous administrations that were far from welcoming media independence. <\/p>\n

Duterte himself makes no bones about the matter. Soon after coming to power, he famously said that \u2018\u201cJust because you\u2019re a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if you are a \u2026(expletive). Freedom of expression cannot help you if you have done something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years into his presidential term, the butchery of Filipino journalists is not orchestrated by grandly designed \u2018deep state\u2019 commando teams or in \u2018white vans\u2019 as it were. Instead, the truth is frighteningly more commonplace. The hits on \u2018unpopular\u2019 journalists are carried out most often by local militias acting on orders of humdrum municipal politicians. <\/p>\n

Assassinations of journalists are \u2018devolved\u2019 to the provinces with deadly effect. Last year, conscious of the fact that this was going beyond all control, a high profile task force was constituted to investigate the killings of journalists resulting in some relief for the long beleagured media.<\/p>\n

Government spokespersons promised to pursue \u2018relentless justice for journalists who were killed in the exercise of their duty, and the security of media men and women who have been harassed and threatened\u2026often in direct reprisal for their reporting.\u2019 But the spate of threats and intimidation continues. How can it not, when the general environment is so conducive to violations of the law? Indeed, it would be a paradox if that was not the case.<\/p>\n

The modern day puzzle of populism<\/strong><\/p>\n

So from the standpoint of a rights advocate, the real puzzle remains as to how Duterte has come to attract such a following in the staunchly Catholic Philippines, renowned for the heroic civil rights activism of ordinary citizens against the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos? <\/p>\n

Do dictators come in different guises?<\/p>\n

Have the lines got so convincingly blurred now that it is hard to say what distinguishes a dictator from a populist \u2018strongman\u2019? <\/p>\n

And is Duterte a logical end point of the collective agony and sacrifice of the Filipino people in their fiery outrage to Marcos that was emulated across the world as an example of a people standing up to a tyrant? <\/p>\n

Is this, the modern day slapstick Filipino version of the Punch and Judy show where it was all supposed to end?<\/p>\n

But that cursory reading of history bypasses an important fact. The decades between Rodrigo Duterte and Ferdinand Marcos straddled a mess of incompetent, corrupt and lazy politicians who ran the Philippines into the ground. In the name of \u2018democratic rule\u2019, millions were squandered, the poor got poorer while a wealthy crony capitalist class indulged their every fantastic whim. And this is where the difference stands out.<\/p>\n

Duterte is not part of the old oligarchies of the Philippines and in that sense, is certainly an \u2018outsider.\u2019 His popularity comes in large measure from this, attracting loyalty from Filipinos sick of the corrupted elite classes. He is a \u2018peoples man\u2019 casually dressed and with a penchant for informality. This is where the magic lies. The fact that the gloss (or rather, the absence thereof) is superficial is scarcely to the point.<\/p>\n

An appealing mix of propaganda and piety<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018A white shirt and white trousers do not a leader make\u2019, my academic conversationalist finally says to me in bland tones, summing up a despairing prognosis of his country\u2019s democratic future. This is true, as understated as it is. <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, are we living in a world where policies, principles and democratic values, earlier the true and tested crucible from which statesmanship emerges, have become quaint and other-wordly things?<\/p>\n

Is it that, even when the poor continue to suffer and the oppressed continue to be oppressed, they will not mind if the picture of a caring leader is thrust at them in a skilful manipulation of propaganda and piety?<\/p>\n

Perhaps these are questions that Sri Lankans must ask themselves if we are to avoid the turmoil that is currently afflicting the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Sunday Times<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Kishali Pinto Jayawrdene In Manila this week, there are chilling reminders of how a \u2018strongman\u2019 President with a penchant for bad-mouthing those whom he dislikes and spearheading summary justice against alleged drug traffickers remains popular with his people despite all the hard evidence showing that the country has really not progressed under his rule. …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘\u2018Shoot First Ask Questions Later\u2019 Policy of Philippines Strong Man Cum Populist President Rodrigo Duterte Dubbed as \u201cPunisher\u201d Has Not Yielded Good Results’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66731"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66732,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66731\/revisions\/66732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}