Examining the aftermath of Bangladesh’s elections, marred by violence and a boycott by the opposition, other countries in Asia have also been failing democracies, wrote Victor Mallet in the Financial Times this week.
Citing the cases of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, Mallet said,
“From Sri Lanka to Cambodia by way of Thailand, parliamentary democracies have fallen prey to the diseases of authoritarianism, violence and strident populism”.
He went on to add,
“In nominally democratic Sri Lanka, those who won the civil war against the separatist Tamil Tigers nearly five years ago have been vengeful rather than magnanimous in victory and have consolidated their grip on the island”.
Read the full piece, entitled “Fears for Bangladeshi democracy rumble across region”, here.