Don’t look now, but the hypocrites are back!
President Duterte’s decision to impose martial law in Mindanao has stirred the hornet’s nest, and resurrected the contrived human rights types. They tell the narrative (conveniently skewed, of course) of the “horrors” of martial law under the Marcos administration: how countless people were either tortured or killed. They’ve conjured up a “martial law stigma,” especially with the help of their idiotic and diabolical media cohorts.
To be fair, that’s true–but they stop at that and disproportionately hammer on that point ad nauseum. What they fail to acknowledge is countless tortures and executions have been going on in the Philippines even after 1986, when “democracy” was restored. In short, they’re unfairly demonizing martial law.
Martial law is amoral: it’s neither “good” nor “bad.” It’s the imposition of direct military control of normally civilian functions of government, especially in response to a temporary emergency. To the bleeding heart “human rights advocates,” martial law is “evil,” even as they go about their lives amassing wealth on the backs of the very people they claim to defend. Talk about hypocrisy.
They also claim a martial law or military dictatorship is “bad” for any country’s economy or growth. So, do they think an oligarchic regime is “better” than a martial law regime? Probably, because they benefit from the former– they’re complicit.
To put things in proper perspective or context, martial rule or a military dictatorship rule couldn’t be all that bad. Let’s compare the Philippines and Thailand.
For the most part from 1932 to 1973 Thailand was dominated by military dictatorships. In 1973, there was a popular uprising which resulted in the end of the ruling military dictatorship of anti-communist Thanom Kittikachorn and altered the Thai political system.
On September 19, 2006, a military junta overthrew the interim government of Thaksin Shinawatra. The junta abrogated the constitution, dissolved Parliament and the Constitutional Court, detained and later removed several members of the government, declared martial law, and appointed one of the king’s Privy Counselors, General Surayud Chulanont, as the Prime Minister. The junta later wrote a highly abbreviated interim constitution and appointed a panel to draft a new permanent constitution. The junta also appointed a 250-member legislature.
Then on May 20, 2014, the Thai army declared martial law and began to deploy troops in the capital. On May 22, the army admitted that it was a coup and that it was taking control of the country and suspending the country’s constitution. On the same day, the military imposed a curfew between the hours of 22:00–05:00, ordering citizens and visitors to remain indoors during this period. On August 21, 2014 the National Assembly of Thailand elected the army chief, General Prayut Chan-o-cha, as prime minister. Martial law was declared formally ended on April 1, 2015.
Uniformed or ex-military men have led Thailand for 55 of the 83 years since absolute monarchy was overthrown in 1932.
So, if we follow the narrative of the hypocritical bleeding heart human rights advocates, Thailand should be a mess, right? Wrong! Its total 2016 GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) stood at $1.152 trillion and per capita GDP (PPP) at $16,706. Thailand’s total 2016 nominal GDP was $409.724 billion and per capita GDP of $5,938.
It’s been awhile since the Philippines experienced its only nationwide martial rule, so we should be in much better shape, right?
Here are our numbers:
Estimated 2017 total GDP (PPP): $873.966 billion
Estimated 2017 per capita GDP (PPP): $8,223
Estimated 2017 total GDP (nominal): $348.593 billion
Estimated 2017 per capita GDP (nominal): $3,280
Numbers don’t lie. What’s funny is the Philippines is far more abundant in natural resources than Thailand. Martial law is not the problem. Look at your surroundings–the people, the attitudes, the priorities, the “crab mentality.”
That’s where the problem lies.
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David Nye as posted on Facebook.
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