{"id":55004,"date":"2020-04-14T10:45:53","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T00:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=55004"},"modified":"2020-04-14T10:44:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T00:44:34","slug":"viral-authoritarianism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/viral-authoritarianism\/","title":{"rendered":"Viral authoritarianism"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2018God and the people are the source of all power \u2026 I have taken it, and damn it, I will keep it forever\u2019, declared<\/a> Haiti\u2019s Fran\u00e7ois \u2018Papa Doc\u2019 Duvalier in 1963. And so he did, remaining president until his death in 1971, whereupon he was succeeded by his son, Jean-Claude (\u2018Baby Doc\u2019), who extended the dictatorship another 15 years.<\/p>\n

This may seem like ancient history. But not to me. My family is Haitian, and though we immigrated to the United States during my childhood, we always seemed to remain within reach of the Duvaliers\u2019 ruthless regime. I have never lost sight of the brutal lessons Haitians learned under the Duvaliers, including how they regularly used natural disasters and national crises to tighten their stranglehold on power.<\/p>\n

We must heed that lesson today. Covid-19 is a threat not just to public health, but also to human rights. Throughout history, crises like the current one have served as a convenient pretext for authoritarian regimes to normalise their tyrannical impulses. My parents witnessed this firsthand in Haiti. We are all seeing it again now.<\/p>\n

The new threat started in China, where an already authoritarian government\u2019s initial effort to cover up<\/a> the epidemic allowed it to spread globally. But China is hardly alone. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s government instituted<\/a> a 21-day lockdown with only four hours\u2019 notice, providing no time for millions of the world\u2019s poorest people to stockpile food and water. Worse, Indian law-enforcement authorities have since been using the lockdown to increase their targeted discrimination<\/a> against the country\u2019s Muslims.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Kenya and Nigeria, police and military forces have pummelled<\/a> anyone who doesn\u2019t seem to be complying quickly enough with social-distancing protocols. In Israel, the authorities have joined around two dozen other governments in stretching privacy protections to the breaking point, by using mobile phone data to track<\/a> citizens\u2019 movements. And in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, who has been consolidating power for years, has pushed through a law that effectively codifies<\/a> his status as an absolute dictator.<\/p>\n

The response to these violations from the world\u2019s democracies has barely risen to the level of a whisper. But lest Americans think themselves immune from such power grabs, they should consider that, in late March, the US Department of Justice asked<\/a> Congress for the power to detain American citizens (not just undocumented immigrants) indefinitely without trial.<\/p>\n

Governments that adopt such measures justify them as necessary to combat the pandemic. But history shows us that illiberal leaders rarely, if ever, allow their emergency powers to expire. To be sure, every government has a duty to respond forcefully to the unfolding public health calamity, and doing so might require temporary but significant restrictions on citizens\u2019 actions. But many of the policies adopted by authoritarian leaders in recent weeks aren\u2019t just anti-democratic; they are also counterproductive in fighting the pandemic.<\/p>\n

For example, far from preventing the spread of disease, suppressing press freedoms makes it far more difficult to raise awareness about how the public should respond. Likewise, detaining civilians without trial undermines trust in government precisely when it\u2019s needed most. And cancelling elections removes any incentive political leaders have to place the public\u2019s interests first.<\/p>\n

As we take the fight to Covid-19, we also must do everything we can to protect the health of our democracies. More to the point, we must recognise that, in many ways, defending public health and defending democracy are two fronts in the same battle.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, civil-society organisations and individuals are not powerless in the face of pandemic crackdowns. After more than three decades on the front lines in defence of democracy, we at the Open Society Foundations have learned some relevant lessons.<\/p>\n

For starters, we must use every tool available to protect civil liberties. While the pandemic calls for social distancing, it does not justify police brutality and abuse of government power. The instant that political leaders start restricting free speech and the right to protest, or spurn checks on their power, the risk of a slide into authoritarianism becomes real. Governments that start to test these limits must be held accountable immediately.<\/p>\n

The second lesson is that we must resist scapegoating. In responding to the pandemic, too many governments have sought to label Covid-19 a \u2018Chinese\u2019 virus, setting the stage for surveillance and stigmatisation of people of Chinese descent.<\/p>\n

As a Haitian-American, I witnessed such persecution firsthand during the HIV\/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, when the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced<\/a> that AIDS was being transmitted by \u2018homosexuals, heroin users, hemophiliacs and Haitians\u2019. As a result of that unscientific, biased messaging, the US started detaining<\/a> Haitian asylum seekers in a horrific Guantanamo Bay prison camp, which actually undermined efforts to prevent the spread of HIV.<\/p>\n

Finally, we must address the underlying economic and social disparities that pandemics tend to exacerbate. To see how the coronavirus has laid bare America\u2019s profound inequities, look no further than Rikers Island, New York City\u2019s main jail, which now has the highest infection rate<\/a> on the planet. More broadly, the crisis is demonstrating once again that far too many American families lack access to health care, paid sick leave, worker protections, personal savings and other basic needs.<\/p>\n

Even as we fend off new attacks on democracy and civil rights, we must use this moment to recognise all of the ways our societies were stripping the rights of citizens, refugees, migrants and asylum seekers before the pandemic hit. Yes, the state of democracy isn\u2019t most people\u2019s main concern nowadays. But if safeguarding democracy isn\u2019t on your own personal to-do list, it\u2019s safe to assume that it isn\u2019t on anyone else\u2019s either.<\/p>\n

Sadly, too many of those in power will never take it upon themselves to protect our rights. We must do that for ourselves. Democracy is more than just a system of governance; it is a lens through which to view the world and one\u2019s place in it. If we break that lens during an emergency, we may never see ourselves the same way again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018God and the people are the source of all power \u2026 I have taken it, and damn it, I will keep it forever\u2019, declared Haiti\u2019s Fran\u00e7ois \u2018Papa Doc\u2019 Duvalier in 1963. And so he did, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1113,"featured_media":55010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1858,2658,106],"class_list":["post-55004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-authoritarianism","tag-coronavirus","tag-democracy","dinkus-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nViral authoritarianism | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/viral-authoritarianism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Viral authoritarianism | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u2018God and the people are the source of all power \u2026 I have taken it, and damn it, I will keep it forever\u2019, declared Haiti\u2019s Fran\u00e7ois \u2018Papa Doc\u2019 Duvalier in 1963. 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