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Defending and Strengthening Democracy By Francis ‘Kiko’ Pangilinan The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have profound impact on our economies and health systems, exacerbating the decline in democracy as some opportunistic political leaders exploit the global crisis. Alongside death and disease is the spike in “infodemic” (misinformation, disinformation, and fake news), poisoning the wellspring of democracy: truth. In this context, we at the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats got together in July 2021 to figure out how to defend our freedoms and how to keep our political parties afloat. In one session, lively discussion ensued on a proposal for new legislation to fight the infodemic; some raised the flag that authoritarian and authorianesque governments are already weaponizing it against dissenters and critics. We agree with our secretary general that “legislation should be based on good governance principles and on liberal and democratic values as we do not want the cure to be worse than the disease.” Apart from these conferences and workshops, we jointly launched with Asia Centre the report “Defending Freedom of Expression: Fake News Laws in East and Southeast Asia.” An updated regional scan of laws and policies on disinformation, it seeks to empower legislators, political
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party leaders, academics, civil-society activists, and journalists in the protection of freedom of expression. At the Philippine Senate, this representation is currently conducting an inquiry to review the country’s existing criminal laws on the spread of fake news and disinformation on social media. In April, CALD spearheaded a four-day virtual training course of women leaders, the Asian Women Education (AWE) for Transformative Leadership. In her remarks, Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo paid tribute to women frontliners and community mobilizers and their “extraordinary strength” in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. The 2021 Global Gender Gap Report noted that women make up 80 percent of nurses and 67 percent of healthcare workforce globally. On August 24, 2021 CALD, in cooperation with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, organized the CALD Smart City Meeting with their local governments to share the hot issues confronting their communities, as well as the significant gains they have achieved in implementing innovative solutions. Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who was once a governor of
