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MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo has refuted claims that it is the broken promises of the liberal and democratic worldview that have spawned populist and even hard-line right-wing leaders today.
During the 13th General Assembly of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) held on Friday, Robredo cited a narrative that spread that the lack of attention from liberal governance to the concerns it should have resolved led people to lean toward authoritarian regimes.
“In recent years, we’ve seen ideas we hold attacked, with authoritarian populists around the world tapping into long-standing frustrations, winning office through the same participatory mechanisms that form the basis of our beliefs,” Robredo said.
“The main message, it seems, has to do with a world order that has not kept its promises. The diagnoses and prescriptions may be different, but the main thesis is that this world order, liberal and democratic in its processes, has given rise to new dangers, has generated generalized inequality and has allowed a few powerful people to accumulate great wealth, leaving everyone in the dust, “he added.
The vice president, a leader of the country’s Liberal Party (LP) that is often labeled as a center-left organization, also mentioned that the common stereotype of liberals is that they are elite and educated, and that they are not aware of the world’s problems. .
Such claims, according to her, are “false”.
“These powerful few, this elite, educated, technocratic, politically correct; many times liberal, and many times out of touch, is to blame for much of what is wrong in the world. Or so the statement says, “he explained.
“We, of course, armed with our good intentions and reflections on how liberal democracy has been the key to human progress for the past two centuries, dismiss these claims as false,” he added.
Robredo’s comments come four years after LP’s presidential bid and his running mate, former Senator Mar Roxas, lost to the eventual winner, President Rodrigo Duterte, by a considerable margin. Robredo won, albeit by a narrow margin of less than 300,000, over the scion of a dictator, former Senator Bongbong Marcos, in the vice presidential race. Since then, Marcos has filed an electoral protest against Robredo’s victory in 2016.
Vice President Leni Robredo. FILE PHOTO
But many observers have noted that the 2016 elections showed that the public perception of liberals, whose mindsets are represented by LP, at least in the Philippines, has leaned toward their political opponents.
Duterte has long been labeled a socialist leader, but the country’s legitimate leftist organizations have dismissed his government as an authoritarian regime.
READ: Duterte a threat to democracy – Roxas
READ: Duterte: I am a socialist, not a communist; last letter
READ: Duterte criticizes Joma again: how not to be a socialist?
The Marcoses have long been viewed as the political opponents of the Liberals, especially when LP joined former President Corazón Aquino. – wife of former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., a fierce political enemy of his predecessor, the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos; and mother of Duterte’s predecessor, former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino.
The rise in popularity of the Duterte form of government is also often attributed to the alleged failure of the Noynoy Aquino administration to address certain problems and issues during his tenure.
Even polls point to high confidence and approval ratings from Duterte and other allied officials. Robredo, on the other hand, also manages to get a high rating – but not as tall as the modern Duterte.
READ: 9 Filipinos approve of Duterte’s performance amid pandemic – Pulse Asia
Despite his rebuttal, Robredo nevertheless acknowledged that there are issues that liberals should focus on, as well as stories to listen to so that people feel that their problems are being heard and addressed by the country’s liberal leaders, regardless of their differences. .
“Look deeper and we are faced with the very real frustrations that have fueled the illiberal phenomenon. We come face to face with the farmer who has tilled his land for decades, only to be swallowed up by a megacorporation. We see those same corporations co-opting our own liberal rhetoric on freedom of regulation, accumulating wealth while their workers barely manage, ”he noted.
“These faces, these stories, are much more than just samples of a data set that we use to find our technocratic solutions. They are the soul that runs through those same solutions: without listening to their stories. […] it will never lift off the ground. The reverse: the more people get involved, the more they recognize that we are all in this together, the more galvanized they become, “he added.
KGA
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