<![CDATA[Duterte is the Putin of Asia. Maria Ressa is the proof]>
Every disruptive world leader fancies himself as a singularly authentic, historic figure without precedent. And Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is arguably one of the defining figures of our time, the ultimate face of populism in Asia.
Yet even Duterte is not unique. If anything, his unvarnished style of governance draws heavily from a man he once described as his "favourite hero": Vladimir Putin.
The Russian president is arguably the forefather of 21st century authoritarian populism, where the law is an instrument of power, civil society is increasingly deferential to the state, independent voices are emasculated, and elections are largely a ritual of legitimisation rather than democratic contestation.
And this is precisely the context within which one should understand the perfunctory arrest of veteran journalist Maria Ressa, arguably Duterte's most prominent critic.
Duterte critic: Rappler's Maria Ressa. Photo: AFP
Ressa's brainchild upended the media landscape in the Philippines and beyond, ushering in a disruptive fusion of mainstream and social media.
In many ways, Rappler is more akin to Silicon Valley start-ups than the conventional media conglomerates of Asia. The meteoric rise of the online news portal, however, inspired a backlash " especially among supporters of Duterte and the whole "Dutertismo" movement.
Over the past three years, Ressa and her colleagues have faced unprecedented online harassment from supporters of the president and, more recently, the wrath of the state.
Ressa, one of Time magazine's Person of the Year awardees in 2018, is facing libel charges over a story her site published in 2012. Separately, she is also facing tax evasion cases.
She and her supporters have categorically denied the charges, accusing the Duterte government of deploying "selective justice" and engaging in an all-out crackdown on freedom of expression. Ressa has called on her colleagues to "hold the line" against creeping authoritarianism.
Her critics say she has abused her professional privileges and must face legal punishment. The Duterte administration has accused her of engaging in self-serving "theatrics", though the president has professed neutrality on the issue.
At first glance, what we are witnessing is a classic showdown between a feisty, undaunted female journalist and a stern, uncompromising strongman. Upon closer examination, however, one notices the spread of Putin's art of governance far beyond the gates of the Kremlin.
In her biography of Putin, The Man Without A Face, Russian journalist Masha Gessen chronicles Putin's consolidation of power through the systematic elimination of his rivals. Throughout the first years of his rule, Putin was unhappy with negative media coverage by conglomerates owned by independent-minded billionaires. He deployed ingenious tactics against his powerful critics, including oligarchs such as Boris Abramovich Berezovsky and Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Putin critic and Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky whose death in London prompted speculation he had been assassinated. Photo: AP
The upshot was rule by law, in which laws invariably serve as an instrument of executive prerogative, rather than rule of law, whereby the rules of the game are predictable and uniformly applied in accordance to the constitution of the land.
Moreover, Putin never wasted a chance to build an elaborate cult of personality through state-of-the-art media campaigns. Pictures of the macho leader wrestling with beasts and judo masters have gone hand in hand with his impassioned call for the restoration of Russian glory through a massive military build-up and an aggressive foreign policy in the post-Soviet space.
Macho image: Russian President Vladimir Putin in southern Siberia. Photo: EPA
Media-savvy populism and ritualised elections take care of democracy, while single-minded leadership supplants institutional checks and balances. The essence of Putin's style of governance is arbitrary rule based on the prerogative of a saviour-leader.
The early-20th century Russian thinker Ivan Ilyin, Putin's ideological mentor, once said, "Power comes all by itself to the strong man." For him, true power is fundamentally arbitrary, the prerogative of a decisive leader, who embraces "redemptive excess" and "patriotic arbitrariness".
Largely forgotten by the end of the 20th century, Ilyin received a special reburial in Moscow in 2005 " overseen by Putin himself, no less.
Over the past decade, populists from Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Hungary's Viktor Orban have applied Putinism with remarkable success, transforming once fledgling democracies with booming economies into new bastions of authoritarian rule.
In many ways, the Filipino president is following in the footsteps of Putin, his ultimate role model. In fact, Duterte himself has become an icon of strongman rule in Asia, a staunch advocate for law and order at the expense of human rights and civil liberties.
Across Southeast Asia and beyond, leading figures often cite Duterte to justify authoritarian rule, and the emasculation of democratic institutions and independent voices.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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