Tuesday 25th October 2016, 6.00 - 7.30pm; Room 9.04, Tower 2
Speaker: Professor Mark Thompson; Chair: Dr Jürgen Haacke
Over the last three decades the Philippines has gained much favorable global attention - from the “people power” uprising which toppled a dictatorship to its recent rapid economic growth. But since newly elected Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte launched a bloody anti-drug campaign that has cost a reported 3,000 lives in the first few weeks of his presidency alone, the views of most Filipinos and foreigner observers have diverged starkly. While more than 90% of Filipinos approve of Duterte's performance in office, the United Nations, human rights groups, the foreign media, and Western governments have criticized the extrajudicial killings as a violation of basic human rights.
This talk will look at why Duterte won the recent presidential election and has “stuck to his guns” in waging a violent war on drugs as well as exploring its implications for the future of democracy in the Philippines and beyond.
Download and listen to the podcast here
Speaker
Mark R Thompson is Head of the Department of Asian and International Studies (AIS) where he is also Director of the Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC) at the City University of Hong Kong. He is the author of Democratic Revolutions: Asia and Eastern Europe (2004) and the forthcoming Authoritarian Modernism in East Asia.
Chair
Jürgen Haacke is Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre and Associate Professor of International Relations at LSE.