Onward and Upwards

“Let’s give the guy a chance; let’s see how he behaves in office,” Richard Heydarian said bluntly. The multi-awarded author and political analyst, whose book, The Rise of Duterte: A Populist Revolt against Elite Democracy, received numerous accolades for its honest account of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s populism, spoke with Tatler about what’s next for the country.

In his youth, Heydarian was pushed towards medicine by his family. His father wanted him to enter the medical field, to follow in his and his sister’s footsteps. But. “So really, that’s how I stumbled onto the world of political analysis,” he declares While interest in foreign policy spurred him on in his studies, the situation of public government kept his pen moving. “There was this sense of responsibility and urgency,” he shared. “I saw very few colleagues fighting back in a sustained manner against misinformation; it felt like there was this power vacuum of leadership among public thinkers, of people who stand up for truth and public reason. So I stepped into that.”