Letter From the Editors
In tumultuous times like these, expect the unexpected – for better or for worse.
Welcome to the April issue of The Diplomat Magazine!
As the coronavirus continues to ravage the world and dominate news cycles, this issue stands as a reminder that, pandemic or no, the world keeps turning. But although life (and politics) goes on, COVID-19 is proof that our expectations are not always met, both for better and for worse.
The long drawn-out peace process in the Philippines has defied expectations of failure, with clear progress over the past year. In Brunei, a year after Sharia law was enacted, we see that international expectations of draconian punishments have fizzled in the face of a different reality. In South Korea, an election expected to turn on the details of electoral reform and Moon’s North Korea gambit instead will test public opinion of the government’s coronavirus response. And finally, in China, as expected by many, a powerful surveillance state has weaponized data for control in the name of healthcare.
When it comes to peace processes, “so much can go wrong that when a peace process goes well, one has to take notice,” writes Zachary Abuza, reflecting on the first anniversary of a peace agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government of the Philippines. Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, D.C., explains that despite setbacks and difficulties the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has successfully marked its first birthday.
In April 2019, Brunei officially implemented the Sharia Penal Code Order, which added punishments such as amputation of limbs for theft and stoning to death for adultery (including same-sex relationships) to its dual Sharia/British common law legal system. The move touched off a heavy international outcry. But in the year since, writes journalist Asif Ullah Khan, not a single criminal case has been dealt with according to the new Sharia law. In fact, most Bruneians, including minority groups, say it hasn’t impacted their lives at all.
In mid-April, South Korea is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections. Despite significant rule changes and stark differences between the main parties from foreign policy to economics, Youngmi Kim predicts the Moon administration’s response to the coronavirus – and public opinion about that response – will determine the results. Kim, a senior lecturer and director of the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies at the University of Edinburgh, explains the landscape of Korean politics at this extraordinary moment.
Finally, Maya Wang, a senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, details how the COVID-19 pandemic is giving birth to new forms of digital surveillance in China – most notably the now-ubiquitous Health Code app, which uses a color-coded system to determine who is allowed to go out in public. The app, which takes advantage of vast troves of government data, including location tracking and personal details, is a prime example of China’s growing surveillance state. “The Chinese government has long sought ways to strengthen control over the population through surveillance technology,” Wang writes. Now fear over the coronavirus has provided the perfect rationale to expand those controls still further, all in the name of public health.