Abstract:
Through an analysis of news reports, public debates, survey results, speeches and policy documents, the concepts of emergent authoritarian populism in the Philippines and the enduring authoritarian neoliberalism in Malaysia will be developed. The first part of the presentation will elucidate the significant features of the process through which the new regime of authoritarian populism is taking shape in the Philippines, and conclude that the dying EDSA-type liberal democracy has been a spawning ground for the popularity of Duterte’s authoritarian politics. The second part will unpack the historical trajectory and prevailing institutions of Malaysia’s neoliberal economy embedded in an authoritarian political framework – which shall serve as initial conditions, normative indicators and benchmarks against which the promises for regime change of Mahathir and his Reformasi allies must be evaluated. Based on these studies in contemporary Southeast Asia, the seminar will comparatively reflect upon the contradictory trends of cases in which a democratic route has been taken to either legitimize or overcome authoritarianism.
Short bio:
Bonn Juego is postdoctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, with interdisciplinary teaching responsibilities in the social, political and economic sciences of development issues. He is visiting fellow at SEARC, City University of Hong Kong during the autumn of 2018, and has held guest researcher positions at the Department of Political Science, Aalborg University, and the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, University of Copenhagen. His recent publications and research endeavours are on contemporary Philippines and Malaysia, the political economy of the ASEAN Economic Community project, the challenge of right-wing populism and nationalism in Asia and Europe, the concept of authoritarian neoliberalism, and the new privatization of global development finance. His talk is based on two recent publications: “The Philippines 2017: Duterte-led Authoritarian Populism and Its Liberal-Democratic Roots” (Asia Maior, 2018) and “The Institutions of Authoritarian Neoliberalism in Malaysia: A Critical Review of the Development Agendas Under the Regimes of Mahathir, Abdullah, and Najib” (ASEAS, 2018).
Please click here for youtube video of the seminar.
