Past imperfect

Political princeling: Ferdinand Marcos Jr preparing to speak to foreign correspondents two days after clinching a landslide victory in the Philippines presidential election. – Reuters

BACK in 1986, when the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines was overthrown by a “people power” movement that propelled the then little-known Corazon Aquino to power, supporters of Benazir Bhutto were keen to cite the phenomenon as a model for a transition to democracy in Pakistan.

It may have been an imperfect analogy, but the political demise of Ferdinand Marcos resonated across Asia at the time. He had by then been in power for 20 years, including a nine-year period of martial law. Previous popular revolts had been repressed, but the 1986 uprising proved to be too formidable a challenge, amid evidence of record-setting corruption.