Perfect Pretext: Populist Authoritarian Seizure of Pandemic Emergency Powers in India and the Philippines

AbstractAbstractUsing Frankfurt School Critical Theory, we examine the political outcomes of how Asian populist authoritarian regimes seized the COVID-19 pandemic context for regime maintenance and power consolidation. The pandemic revealed interesting India-Philippines parallels highlighting three inter-connected political-economic development patterns contextualising analogous state responses to COVID-19. First, how neo-liberal economic policies pursued through old and new technologies of domination accompanied phenomenal economic growth rates without addressing structural socio-economic inequalities. Second, how parallel predisposing conditions of failed political promises, increased rent-seeking opportunities, and corruption under constricted neo-liberal democracies, gave rise to populist authoritarian leaders. Third, how combined neo-liberalism and populist authoritarianism conditioned conflictual and contested government responses to the pandemic, bolstering power consolidation and regime maintenance, on the one hand, and ensuing political contestations on the other. Populist authoritarianism persists during pandemics through three significant connected elements of ideological domination propagated through mass media, the hetero-patriarchal family, and educational system.Key Words: AuthoritarianismCOVID-19 pandemicFrankfurt Schoolnationalismneo-liberalismpopulism AcknowledgementsWe thank the journal’s anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and especially Kevin Hewison for his careful editing of this article.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingWe are grateful to the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, Vanier Doctoral Fellowship, and International Development Research Center (IDRC) for research support.Notes1 The Freiburg School, as the Frankfurt School’s conservative counterpart, promoted the neo-liberal economics of Frederick Hayek and Milton Friedman. Neo-liberal free markets, small government, privatisation, and decentralisation gained currency after the 1970s in an attempt to reform capitalism amidst changing global conditions (see Harvey 2005 Harvey, D. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]).2 Jim Collins popularised the “flywheel loops” concept, using Amazon’s customer-centred mindset. “Flywheel” refers to the heavy revolving wheel giving momentum and greater machine stability, enabling it to “fly” or turn by itself.3 After Duterte left office in June 2022, his daughter Sara was elected vice president.4 His supporters and the media frequently referred to Duterte as “Father” or “Tatay Digong.”5 Some of this funding was pandemic related. For example, the Asian Development Bank provided a 254 million pesos food grant for 55,000 Metro Manila families under quarantine, adding another 81 billion in aid and a 154 million peso grant for a Pampanga COVID-19 testing laboratory (Business Inquirer, April 2, 2020).6 A hijab ban in Karnataka state’s educational institutions barred Muslim female students from entering campuses (Maktoob Media, February 15, 2022). In response, Muslim women protested against the hijab ban in Karnataka and other places, amidst harassment from mobs in saffron shawls shouting Hindutva slogans opposing hijab (Al-Jazeera, February 8, 2022).7 Duterte’s vilification was confined to Muslims who joined ISIS and other terrorist groups. He claims Muslim Maguindanao roots and success in bringing more autonomy and development infrastructure to Muslim Mindanao.8 Robredo’s candidacy also relied on “mother-saviour,” “the future is female,” “last man standing is a woman,” gendered motifs as media and her supporters highlight her talents, strength, and resilience as a simple single-mother-widow who raised successful daughters.9 Article 370 of 1949 exempted Jammu and Kashmir states from the constitution, allowing Kashmir legislative independence in matters of defence, finance, foreign affairs, and communication. This permitted a separate constitution and flag while property rights were denied to outsiders. Article 35A was introduced in 1954 to define the region’s permanent residents and furthermore stressed old provisions for territory regulation under Article 370 (Al-Jazeera, August 5, 2019).10 “Red-tagging,” once reserved for alleged “red” communists and their sympathisers, is now applied to the government’s malicious identification of opponents from various political ideologies.11 One case involved Elena Tijamo, co-ordinator for the Farmers Development Center (FARDEC), a peasant support organisation based in Cebu. Masked men clad in black abducted her on June 13, 2020. Months before, Elena reported a man who claimed to be surveying elderly COVID-19 beneficiaries but who had asked her parents for Elena’s personal details. Village administrators said they had no knowledge of such a survey and unidentified men continued to surveil her house. Her abductors told family members not to contact the authorities, promising Elena would “be returned later only if social media posts and news reports of her abduction were taken down” (Altermidya, June 15, 2020).12 Opposition critics labelled as Duterte’s most vocal “enemies” were targeted in media and became subjects of politically-motivated investigations, prosecutions, and legislative impeachment such as Justice Secretary Leila de Lima who was imprisoned based on false accusations of her involvement with drug lords, Maria Lourdes Sereno who was removed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court following a Supreme Court petition challenging her right to hold that office, and journalist Maria Ressa, charged with cyber libel.