Gist of The Hindu: July 2016
- A new strongman in the Philippines ()
- The power to certify ()
- The fee for NSG membership ()
- The ghosts of Sykes-Picot ()
- A work in progress (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Rebooting ties with Iran (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- India and Bharat, in another time (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- The shifting sands in Afghanistan (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- iForays in the Indian market (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- The ease of living in India (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- ISRO’s new frontiers (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- The takeaway from Tehran (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- On the road to smartness (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Reaching out to Africa (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Birth pangs of payments banks (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Missing the wetlands for the water (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Convergence, but hard choices ahead (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Mayhem in Mathura (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Clear the air on FDI in retail (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Modi’s West Asian odyssey (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- The rights of the terminally ill (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Brexiteers, Lexiteers, and others (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Contours of a natural alliance (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- The new symphony in India-U.S. ties (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Steering India to safer roads (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Ending AIDS by 2030 (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Hyping up the benefits of private banking (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Why India should keep an eye on Europe (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Voting to defeat (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- A case for cutting out the censor (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- No threat to strategic autonomy, yet (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- America’s new terror reality (Only For The Subscribed Members)
- Marching onwards from Paris (Only For The Subscribed Members)
A new strongman in the Philippines
During his election campaign, Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines was often compared to Donald Trump. Like the Republican Party’s presumptive candidate, Mr. Duterte ran a divisive, anti-establishment campaign built around a strongman image. His contempt for law, threats to “shut down Congress” and pledge to send the army and the police to kill criminals had all revived memories of Ferdinand Marcos’s brutal dictatorship, brought to an end by a “revolution” in 1986. Mr. Duterte’s victory in the presidential elections by a clear margin, has thrown the future of the Philippines into uncertainty. The country’s political elite are partly responsible for the triumph of his brand of politics. Though outgoing President Benigno Aquino is hailed as a champion of economic reforms, the high growth barely trickled down to the poor. Despite the economy clocking an average annual growth rate of 6.3 per cent between 2010 and 2015, the percentage of Filipinos living below the national poverty line in 2015 stood at 26.3, almost the same as in 2009. Infrastructure is poor and corruption is persistent. The revolution that brought the Marcos era to an end has, over the years, ossified into oligarchic rule, with a few political dynasties pulling the strings. Mr. Duterte, known for his crackdown on crime in Davao as the city’s Mayor, presented himself as an alternative to the oligarchs in Manila. His populism and showmanship helped rally the electorate to his side.