Radical Democracy in the Time of Duterte

Like President Rodrigo Duterte’s political style, Dr. Christopher Ryan Maboloc, a Davao-based philosopher and public intellectual, presents unconventional, provocative, and controversial arguments. Some may criticize this book as a mere justification for the president who abused the state’s power and killed tens of thousands of people. Others would gratefully find the book sharply articulates their underrepresented voices supporting Duterte. However, discussing the book merely in the context of the pro- versus anti-Duterte is misleading and unproductive. Instead, we must accept the book as a sincere proposal for radical democracy in the Philippines. "Maboloc joins Chantal Mouffe’s radical democracy that criticizes the conventional liberal democracy, in which people pursue consensus through rational deliberation based on public reason. According to Mouffe, the bias toward rationality, public reason, and consensus deprive marginalized groups of opportunities to express their voices with passion, broader modes of communications, and antagonism, thus running the risk of incurring violent expression of their discontents. Instead, radical democracy advocates appreciating antagonism as the inevitable and necessary essence of “the political” in order to guarantee people with different moral views contest each other while treating their opponents legitimately. Mouffe argues that radical democracy works better to prevent violence in plural societies by providing the marginalized with more legitimate channels of expressing dissent. "Maboloc evaluates that Duterte foregrounded radical democracy by disrupting the conventional words and deeds of “the elite democracy,” legitimizing passion such as anger in political debate, doing justice to the voices of marginalized groups, and breaking the moral monopoly of the “People Power narrative.” I agree with Maboloc in this regard. I myself have argued that the hegemonic discourses in the name of “good citizens” responsible for the liberal democracy paradoxically undermine the democratic moral plurality by delegitimizing the marginalized. While I focused on the poor and Maboloc speaks for Mindanao, both try to pluralize and relativize moral discourses, breaking the hegemony of self-righteous discourses in the name of “civic enlightenment” rooted in the colonial past. "However, I have a reservation about Maboloc’s arguments. To realize radical democracy, introducing antagonism to disrupt conventional liberal democracy is not sufficient. It is even more crucial to transform “we/they” relation from antagonism, where conflicting parties try to destroy or eliminate their enemies, to agonism, where both parties contend with each other while treating their adversaries with legitimacy. Same as basketball or football, we cannot play the game of democracy without legitimate rivals. From this standpoint, I am afraid that although Duterte opened up the possibility for radical democracy, he ended up undermining democratic plurality, the very foundation of radical democracy, as his presidency came to revolve around the destruction of enemies. "Beyond superficial compliments, I dared to write this book review-like forewoard not to discredit Maboloc’s argument but to express my most profound respect for his work dedicated to radical democracy by introducing a democratic plurality to readers. (Note, he entrusted me to contribute a foreword even knowing differences in our evaluations of Duterte’s presidency.) Therefore, it is up to readers to discern to what extent Duterte contributed to radical democracy in the Philippines. Also, it is the readers’ responsibility to listen to the book, whether you like it or not, and start agonistic deliberation toward radical democracy in a society that has been eroded by moral division and antagonism. Political leaders may disrupt the hegemony of liberal democracy but cannot achieve radical democracy alone. It is ultimately up to us if we can uphold agonism by appreciating the ideas and moralities of conflicting others. However you hate them, you must co-constitute democratic spaces with them. I guarantee this book provides rich wisdom and food for thought for Filipinos to advance radical democracy. Wataru Kusaka, Ph.D Tokyo University of Foreign Studies