I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve
written a fair few alarmist pieces, all of which I now regret writing. (Thankfully,
most of them haven’t gotten much attention.) Considering this, I think it’s
worthwhile to approach my stance from a more dispassionate point of view, so I’ll
be explicit about this. My primary issue
with Duterte isn’t partisan, it’s philosophical.
I’ll be direct. Duterte seems to be operating
under utilitarian logic. Utilitarianism
here is defined as “the doctrine that actions are right if they are useful or
for the benefit of a majority.” And as Edgar Lores outlines on joeam.com, this
seems to be one of the justifications for the current War on Drugs.
Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella
has made statements consistent with this characterization. Here, he is reported
as saying that our culture cares more for the “common good” than it does for “individual
rights.” In addition, he compares Duterte’s leadership style with Singapore’s.
Comparisons between Duterte and Singapore seem
to be a recurring theme within the current administration, so I don’t take that
as a one-off thing. Singapore, of course, operates under a highly utilitarian ethos
– Lee Kuan Yew ensured as much. Like Duterte (via Abella), Lee believed that
the benefit of the majority outweighed all individual concerns.
So with that being said, why do I resent
this utilitarian worldview so much? Because at heart, I’m a classical liberal,
and – drawing on Kant – I resent this form of utilitarianism because it doesn’t respect the dignity of
the individual.
Pictured: Someone who dislikes this state of affairs as much as I do.
As one Rajan Rishyakaran points out,
individual rights do not matter in
Singapore. For instance, if my freedom of speech proves inconvenient for the
majority, then the government has the right to censor me so that a few more people
can be better off. This is inimical to the values I was raised with, values
which state that no end justifies violating my human rights as a means.
(Again, allow me to emphasize that I am deliberately
trying to be dispassionate about this. So if I’m coming off as cold here, that’s
why.)
And honestly, if people believe in all this
utilitarian shit? That’s fine by me.
As long as they don’t try to force it
on me. That’s the reason I don’t say much about Singapore, and why I didn’t
criticize Duterte until it became apparent to me that he was running for
President.
It's when such utilitarian logic is elevated to a national scale that it becomes my concern. It's an existential threat to me in both senses of the word – it attacks both my
chances of living to see another day and the reason why I live. This is all just a means of pre-emptive self-preservation.
Thank you for your time.