By now, you should be used to the opinion pages of the IDS and every other news publication being saturated with Donald Trump narratives.
Trump has demonstrated, perhaps for the wrong reasons, that his doings deserve to be ultra-publicized, so don’t expect this coverage to disappear between today and Nov. 8.
To those who have long grown tired of mentions of Trump, I urge you to keep fighting the good fight.
To be sure, Trump has stirred the pot time and time again with offensive accusations and oversimplifications, but he isn’t planning to facilitate the killing of more than 3,500 petty criminals.
Trump hasn’t threatened to cannibalize Islamic militants.
Though he hasn’t quite showered President Obama with praise, Trump never called his mother a whore.
Though unknown to many Americans, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has done these and innumerable other appalling things.
Simply put, Duterte, though cut from the same populist political cloth as the GOP presidential nominee, makes Trump look like Mother Teresa.
Few world leaders have so brazenly and tactlessly disregarded basic human rights as Duterte. In a campaign to root out lawlessness, he has employed vigilantes and police forces to kill drug criminals and is calling for the reinstitution of capital punishment to stymie petty crime in the Philippines.
What’s more alarming is the fact that Duterte was not some power-hungry wild card who flew off the handle once elected. He won the presidency in May on a platform that promised to do many of the things he has done.
As mayor of Davao City, the island nation’s third largest, Duterte implicitly endorsed its vigilante militia known as the Davao Death Squad by turning a blind eye. The organization has killed upwards of 1,400 drug users, petty criminals and street children since 1998.
Duterte’s atrocities have had real, damaging effects. Over the last month, the Philippine peso has tanked 4 percent, an unprecedented decline stemming from the fallout over his policies. Trade partners have been alienated, and firms and individuals have pulled more than $351 million in investment from the country.
Then, of course, there is the loss of life and the terror the Duterte administration has caused since his June 30 inauguration.
Beyond the damage Duterte has done to his own country, his invective language suggests he is also a legitimate threat to international peace. In August, he discussed the potential of a bloody confrontation with China were the dispute between China and the Philippines over a portion of the South China Sea to come to a head.
Duterte’s Philippines is not the only culprit. Human rights atrocities are committed by government-backed groups in poor countries throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and these deserve much more focused and productive attention from groups like the United Nations.
Like the state-sponsored terrorism in Sudan and the systematic oppression of North Koreans by Kim Jong-un, Duterte’s murder of 35 Filipinos per day without trial cannot stand.
Surely, Trump’s incoherent ravings deserve to be plastered on newspaper pages everywhere. It’s only right that people are aware of what’s at stake in November’s election.
But they should also be told of the terrible crimes committed by Duterte and what they could mean for citizens of the Philippines and the world.
dkilcull@indiana.edu
@daniel_kilc_
