Leaders around the
world have passed emergency decrees and legislation expanding their reach
during the pandemic. Will they ever relinquish them?
It is easy to take advantage
of frightened people who have accepted infringements on freedom.
As Covid-19
brings the world to a halt, some world leaders have spotted an opportunity
to tighten their grip on power.
In Hungary, a bill
passed on Monday which handed
Prime Minister Viktor Orban the power to rule by
decree, indefinitely.
It gives him the
authority to punish journalists if the government believes the reporting it is
not accurate and allows the government to hit citizens with heavy penalties for
violating lockdown rules. It also prevents any elections or referendums from
taking place while the measures are in effect.
The move led to calls
for the European Union to act, with
Italy's former Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, going to far as to suggest the
bloc kick Hungary out if the measures were not revoked -- something that's far
easier said than done.
Orban's move is perhaps the most flagrant power grab to take
place during this pandemic. However, other strongman leaders have spotted the
opportunity to seize greater authority.
Perhaps it was a
coincidence that China chose this moment to
tighten its control around disputed reefs in the South China Sea, arrest
the most prominent democrats in Hong Kong and tear a hole in Hong Kong’s Basic
Law. But perhaps not. Rulers everywhere have realized that now is the perfect
time to do outrageous things, safe in the knowledge that the rest of the world
will barely notice. Many are taking advantage of the pandemic to grab more
power for themselves.
China’s actions in
Hong Kong are especially troubling. Since Britain handed the territory back to
China in 1997, Hong Kong has been governed under the formula of “one country,
two systems.” By and large, its people enjoy the benefits of free speech, free
assembly, and the rule of law. Foreign firms have always felt safe there, which
is why Hong Kong is such an important financial hub. But China’s ruling
Communist Party has long yearned to crush Hong
Kong’s culture of protest. Article 22 of the Basic Law (a kind of
mini-constitution) bans Chinese government offices from interfering in Hong
Kong’s internal affairs. That was always understood to include its Liaison
Office in Hong Kong. But on 17 April, the office, China’s main representative
body in the territory, said it was not bound by Article 22. This suggests that
it plans to step up its campaign to curtail Hong Kong’s freedoms.
But as seen at the
start of this article all around the world, autocrats and would-be autocrats
spy an unprecedented opportunity. COVID-19 is an emergency like no other.
Governments need extra tools to cope with it. No fewer than 84 have enacted
emergency laws vesting additional powers in the executive.
In some cases, these
powers are necessary to fight the pandemic and will be relinquished when it is
over. But in many cases, they are not, and won’t be. The places most at risk
are those where democracy’s roots are shallow, and institutional checks are
weak.
Everywhere people are
scared. Many wish to be led to safety. Wannabe strongmen are grabbing coercive
tools they have always craved, in order, they say, to protect public health.
Large gatherings can be sources of infection; even the most liberal governments
are restricting them. Autocrats are delighted to have such a respectable excuse
for banning mass protests, which over the past year have rocked India, Russia,
and whole swathes of Africa and Latin America. The pandemic gives a reason to
postpone elections, as in Bolivia, or to press ahead with a vote while the
opposition cannot campaign, as in Guinea. Lockdown rules can be selectively
enforced. Azerbaijan’s president openly threatens to use them to “isolate” the
opposition. Relief cash can be selectively distributed. In Togo, you need a
voter id, which opposition supporters who boycotted a recent election tend to
lack. Minorities can be scapegoated. India’s ruling party is firing up Hindu
support by portraying
Muslims as COVID-19 vectors.
Fighting the virus
requires finding out who is infected, tracing their contacts, and quarantining
them. That means more invasions of privacy than people would accept in regular
times. Democracies with proper safeguards, like South Korea or Norway, will
probably not abuse this power much. Regimes like China’s and Russia’s are
eagerly deploying high-tech kit to snoop on practically everyone, and they are
not alone. Cambodia’s new emergency law places no limits on such surveillance.
False information
about the disease can be dangerous. Many regimes are using this truism as an
excuse to ban “fake news,” by which they often mean honest criticism. Peddlers
of “falsehood” in
Zimbabwe now face 20 years in prison. The head of a COVID-19 committee
under Khalifa Haftar, a Libyan warlord, says: “We consider anyone who
criticizes to be a traitor.” Jordan, Oman, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates
have banned print newspapers, claiming that they might transmit the virus.
Judging by what has already
been reported, power grabbers on every continent are exploiting COVID-19 to
entrench themselves. But with journalists and human-rights activists unable to
venture out, nobody knows whether the unreported abuses are worse. How many
dissidents have been jailed for “violating quarantine rules”? Of the vast sums
being mobilized to tackle the pandemic, how much has been stolen by strongmen
and their flunkeys? A recent World Bank study found that significant inflows of
aid to developing countries coincided with big outflows to offshore havens with
secretive shell companies and banks, and that was before autocrats started
grabbing COVID-related emergency powers. Better checks are needed.
“Right
now it is health over liberty,” says Thailand’s prime minister, Prayuth
Chan-Ocha. Yet many of the liberty-constricting
actions taken by regimes like his are bad for public health. Censorship blocks
the flow of information, frustrating an evidence-based response to the virus.
It also lets corruption thrive. Partisan enforcement of social distancing
destroys the trust in government needed if people are to follow the rules.
Cruel, but inept
Where does this lead?
COVID-19 will make people more miserable, sicker, and angrier. The coronavirus
is impervious to propaganda and the secret police. Even as some leaders exploit
the pandemic, their inability to deal with prevalent suffering will act against
the myth that they and their regimes are impregnable. In countries where
families are hungry, where baton-happy police enforce lockdowns and where
cronies’ pickings from the abuse of office dwindle along with the economy, that
may eventually cause some regimes to lose control. For the time being, though,
the traffic is in the other direction. Unscrupulous autocrats are exploiting
the pandemic to do what they always do: grab power at the expense of the people
they govern.
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