On February 18, Thailand’s controversial and ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released from a prison hospital where he had been admitted on charges of corruption and abuse of power. After living in self-imposed exile for 17 years, Thaksin finally returned to Thailand in August last year after the Thai Contribution Party formed a new government and one of his allies became prime minister. Many Thais were angry and questioned why Thaksin received special treatment.
In Indonesia’s February 14 election, Prabowo Subianto, a former army general and minister of defense, was easily elected president with over 50% of the vote. His supporters were overjoyed, but critics warned of his return to authoritarianism. Prabowo’s victory was a remarkable rehabilitation for the former army special forces commander who was forced out of the military in the 1990s for human rights abuses including torture and the disappearance of student activists (some of whom remain missing today). Prabowo was stripped of his command and banned from entering the United States for 20 years for attempting to stage a coup.
These incidents in three nominal democracies highlight a problematic but persistent aspect of elite politics in the region: a pervasive culture of impunity. Past misdeeds are often quickly forgotten. Politicians usually prefer to keep their powerful rivals close and in their tents. And while the law is often weaponized to imprison and silence journalists, dissidents and activists, harsh penalties are rarely imposed on the wealthy and well-connected.
Co-opting political opponents has long been a common feature in the region. In the Philippines, where I was a correspondent in the late 1980s, former military coup leaders who served time in prison for trying to overthrow the elected president were quickly pardoned and later re-emerged as politicians and became political opponents. Some people were elected with the help of . This would be roughly equivalent to President Biden pardoning Donald Trump for the January 6 insurrection, inducting Trump into the Cabinet, and confirming Trump as his eventual successor in 2021. .
Southeast Asian leaders say they value national stability over America’s divisive politics. Involving former enemies is a way to find consensus. perhaps. But it also impedes democratic development in the region, makes a mockery of the rule of law, and threatens the people’s political stance as elites are seen as primarily concerned with protecting each other in order to maintain power. It also leads to disillusionment.
Mr. Prabowo’s rehabilitation was helped by the fact that the widely popular incumbent president, Joko Widodo, who defeated him twice, welcomed Mr. Prabowo into his cabinet. After two terms in office, Widodo, popularly known as “Jokowi,” has emerged as his successor, helped in part by Prabowo’s nomination of Widodo’s less-qualified son, Gibran Rakabumin Raka, as his running mate. Most of them supported Prabowo.
Prabowo may have borrowed a winning strategy from Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who was elected in 2022 with an overwhelming 60% of the vote. Despite being the son and namesake of the late Philippine dictator who presided over a dark era of martial law and human rights abuses that included the detention, torture, and extrajudicial killings of rebels in the 1970s and 1980s. I won. In the 2022 election campaign, Marcos Jr. nominates Sara Duterte-Carpio, daughter of outgoing popular president Rodrigo Duterte, as his running mate, despite the fact that Marcos and Dutertes are from opposing families. did.
Prabowo may also have taken a new page from Marcos Jr.’s playbook. He largely avoided traditional media and reinvented himself on TikTok. He described himself as a grandfather indifferent to dance to a whole new generation of Indonesians. Voters had no living memory of the dark days of the former Suharto regime under which Prabowo served. (Mr. Prabowo was previously married to the late dictator’s daughter.)
In Malaysia, Mr. Najib’s commutation of sentence has helped embattled Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim strengthen support among Mr. Najib’s Malay base. And in Thailand, the ruling generals are pushing back against the Thaksin faction they once deposed, rather than handing power to the more reformist Forward Party, which won the last election while threatening to curtail the powers of both the military and the monarchy. It was decided that it would be better to conclude an agreement with the populist Thai Contribution Party. .
After all, impunity for those in power undermines respect for the rule of law. In a democracy, everyone should be held accountable for their past actions. Even if or especially when it’s inconvenient.