ASEASUK Conference 2016 SOAS, 16-18 September 2016

Contentious Politics: Southeast in Times of Polarization

Convenor: Duncan McCargo, , [email protected]

In recent decades, a number of countries in have experienced heightened political polarization: extreme elements of both democracy and authoritarianism have co-existed in the same or consecutive time periods. Populations have been mobilised through a variety of mechanisms including mass street protests, electoral populism and the rise of social media. Meanwhile, entrenched elites have sought to retain power through military crackdowns, media campaigns and top-down projects to prop up their legitimacy and so ensure the continuation of their rule.

This panel aims to examine relevant issues and themes in a range of countries where contentious politics have come to the fore, which could include (but is not limited to) Burma, , Malaysia, , the Philippines and .

Panels

Chair: Duncan McCargo (University of Leeds)

1. Myth, Rhetoric and History: The Legitimation of the Marcos Regime Duncan McCargo (University of Leeds) [email protected]

2. Rumour, Fantasy and Fraud: De-legitimizing the Jokowi Presidency Adam Tyson (University of Leed) [email protected]

3. The Party and the People: Thailand’s Redshirt Movement after the 2011 Election. Khajornsak Sitthi (University of Leeds) [email protected]

Abstracts

1. Myth, Rhetoric and History: The Legitimation of the Marcos Regime Duncan McCargo (University of Leeds) [email protected]

This paper explores how the regime of Ferdinand Marcos (1966-86) sought to deploy particular readings and constructions of Philippine history in order to legitimate authoritarian rule in the guise of “indigenous” constructions of identity. This involved a series of projects, notably the monumental Tadhana, a multi-volume history of the Philippines supposedly written by Marcos himself, but actually ghost-written by a team of prominent academics. Other elements in the project included Marcos‟s myth making around the figure of the „New Filipino,‟ and his related attempts to appropriate the language of „revolution‟ to form the rhetorical basis of an extremely tendentious „New Society‟. The paper examines the grandiose ambitions that underpinned these projects, which eventually collapsed under the weight of their own incoherence.

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ASEASUK Conference 2016 SOAS, University of London 16-18 September 2016

2. Rumour, Fantasy and Fraud: De-legitimizing the Jokowi Presidency Adam Tyson (University of Leed) [email protected]

This paper explores how rumour and fantasy were used in an attempt to de-legitimize the Jokowi campaign at the height of the presidential race in 2014. Libellous reporting and attempted character assassinations were designed to undermine Jokowi‟s presidential bid and continue to haunt the president during his time in office. One document at the centre of the campaign against Jokowi was a 16-page report entitled „Capres Boneka‟ [The Puppet Presidential Candidate] published by Obor Rakyat on 5 May 2014. It is alleged that the chief editor of Obor Rakyat, a former Tempo journalist, was recruited by rival candidate Prabowo Subianto. The Obor report portrays Jokowi as Megawati‟s deferential puppet (boneka) and has come to typify the growing criticism of Jokowi‟s reliance on Megawati‟s political party (PDI-P), as well as her inner circle of elite powerbrokers, during and after the 2014 presidential campaign. Jokowi was portrayed as a deviant Muslim with Chinese ancestry and communist sympathies. Such highly-polarizing and offensive messages were distributed to networks of Islamic boarding schools and mosques (including Nahdlatul Ulama strongholds) throughout the island of Java. The paper finds that the implausible claims and rumours that emerged in 2014 are having a lingering effect on an already contentious and polarizing presidency.

3. The Party and the People: Thailand’s Redshirt Movement after the 2011 Election. Khajornsak Sitthi (University of Leeds) [email protected]

This paper examines how two strands of „network Thaksin‟, the Pheu Thai Party and the Redshirt movement, have been negatively affected by elections since 2011. Although general elections had been instrumentally valuable for pro-Thaksin parties (which have won all of those held since 2001), the paper shows that the 2011 election held after the May 2010 crackdown generated serious internal conflicts within pro-Thaksin forces, both in the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary wings. There was intense contestation among redshirt leaders who sought to be adopted as parliamentary candidates by Pheu Thai. These conflicts were further intensified during local elections in 2012, especially in the Northeast, where many candidates proclaimed themselves the authentic representatives of both the party and the redshirt movement. Following its successes in the 2011 election, relations between the Pheu Thai Party and pro-Thaksin voters became strained as the party sought to compromise with the ruling elites. This significantly weakened relations between the Pheu Thai Party and the ordinary people whom formed the bedrock of its support.

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