ADRN

Overview

- Date: October 25 (Tuesday) 2022 – October 27 (Thursday) 2022 (KST)

- Venue: Taipei, Taiwan

 

Session Description

 

Asia Democracy Research Network has organized a workshop titled "Building a supportive narrative for democracy and civic space" at the 11th Global Assembly of World Movement for Democracy. The Assembly was held in Taipei from Oct. 25 to 27.

 

Three speakers, Kaustuv Bandyopadhay (Director of Participatory Research in Asia), Joshua Mata (Secretary General of Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa), and Ichal Supriadi (Secretary General of Asia Democracy Network) spoke about India, Philippines, and Indonesia respectively.

 

Dr. Kaustuv Bandyopadhay has identified five illiberal narratives: victimization of Hindu majority, failure of public elites to bring development, corruption of opposite elites, need for a self-reliant country based on super nationalism, and necessity of a stronger leader.

 

Mr. Joshua Mata has told that Bong Bong Marcos won the election because the liberal force could not persuade the citizens with good democratic narratives. Rising income gaps and economic difficulties were attributed to political elites. Frustrated voters turned to looking for a populist strongman.

 

Mr. Ichal Supriadi said Indonesians elected the underdog Jokowi who had a background of CSO leadership. However, CSO leaders who entered the government were divided. Divisive politics led to less pluralistic politics, increased corruption, and the strengthened military influence over public resources.

 

All three speakers pointed out weak judiciary and less independent media for the failure of democratic narratives. On the other hand, they all also agreed that the social media has been used to strengthen autocratic power of a strong man.

 

To build up counter narratives, they argue to rebuild the force of grassroots democratic, online-education towards youths, and systematic checks against misinformation and fake news.

 

One of the audiences rightly emphasized that we need more assertive democratic narratives of why democracy is good for people. When the contents of democratic narratives are provided, we can think of more effective agents and communication methods

 

Participants

 

Moderator

Sook Jong Lee Senior Fellow at East Asia Institute, Professor at Sungkyunkwan University

 

Speakers

Kaustuv Bandyopadhay Director of Participatory Research in Asia

Joshua Mata Secretary General of Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa

Ichal Supriadi Secretary General of Asia Democracy Network