Advantage China, as democracy slides from view in Southeast Asia

Name: Indonesian and Malaysian leaders urge Myanmar to resolve political differences through legal means
Uploaded: 2021-02-07T01:00:19.000Z
Duration: 1 min 34 s
Description: Indonesian and Malaysian leaders urge Myanmar to resolve political differences through legal means

Strongmen in power in Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia, single parties in Laos and Vietnam, and democracy eroding in Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia

If Southeast Asia is in an ‘authoritarian race to the bottom’, analysts say it will play into the hands of one of the countries in the US-China rivalry. Guess which one?

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Supporters of Myanmar’s military carry a portrait of junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing as they celebrate the coup in Naypyitaw. Photo: Reuters

Bhavan Jaipragas

Published: 9:00am, 7 Feb 2021Updated: 9:00am, 7 Feb 2021

As Myanmar’s dark era of junta rule began winding down in 2011 with the bold reforms initiated by the quiet ex-general, President Thein Sein, other events happening across Southeast Asia gave reformists hope this was not an isolated instance of democratic progress.

That year, Yingluck Shinawatra romped to a landslide election victory in Thailand, bringing the populist movement founded by her brother Thaksin – toppled as prime minister by a military coup and forced into exile five years earlier – back into power.

In the Philippines, Benigno Aquino, son of two democracy icons, was a year into a presidential term following a victorious campaign against his scandal-riddled predecessor Joseph Estrada.

Even in the relatively staid politics of Singapore, there was movement in the democracy-meter in 2011: riding on a wave of discontent over immigration, the tiny opposition made historic gains against the iron-fisted People’s Action Party.

That was then. But fast forward a decade to the military coup against the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar on February 1, and the prevalent narrative among experts is that it is autocracy, rather than people power, that is now on the march in Southeast Asia.

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Indonesian and Malaysian leaders urge Myanmar to resolve political differences through legal means

That feeling is borne out in hard data. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) democracy index released last week showed little progress had been made in the sprawling region of over 600 million people. Some areas had even gone backwards.

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