Photo source: BBC By Naveed Qazi, Editor Globe Upfront It was being said that the 2022 presidential election win of Marcos Jr., son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was the most eventful since the 1986 People Power Revolution. It brought back dynastical democracy after the twenty-one-year rule of Marcos Sr., an era that was regarded in Philippine history as one of the darkest periods. Historical memories were relived as another Marcos came into power. In the past, the Marcos family, known for its human rights abuses and corruption bankrupted the country and made it the ‘sick man of Asia’. There was a systematic revisionist campaign orchestrated by Marcos’s team, using different social media platforms. These efforts, it was believed in the regional press, took more than a decade in making. After the election win, the political understandings of common Filipinos came to the fore. According to an Oped by Michael Keel in Nikkei Asia: ‘The Marcos family's return to the preside...

  Photo source: Lowly Institute By Naveed Qazi, Globe Upfront The new prime minister of Malaysia has been touted by some sections of the Malaysian and Western press as having the potential to usher Malaysia into a new direction. They believe that his election also gives a crucial chance for the nation to heal the social and political fabric, but the reality is that most of the notable leaders in Malaysia have not been clean slates. Even long-time serving prime minister, Najib Razak was indicted in 2022 for a twelve-year prison sentence for abuse of power, and money laundering related to 1MDB state fund. A US attorney general once described the embezzlement of billions of dollars from 1MDB as ‘kleptocracy at its worst.’ Starting as a fiery student activist, and then becoming an establishment insider, Anwar was the man who took the country out of the Asian financial crises. He was perceived as a national leader since 1997 but was sacked by his nemesis turned mentor, Mahathir Mohammed...

  Photo source: Washington Post By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront In Brazil, people believe that Lula has done a comeback of the century after winning the 2022 election. And he did that with a narrow margin and vowed to change the nation.   He had high approval ratings despite the notorious bribing charges in a vast corruption scheme in 2017. But this charge was refused by him and the Brazilian left. In 2021, Brazil’s supreme court overturned his conviction, decreeing that his right to a free trial had been compromised. This cleared him to run for president again, where he campaigned around rebuilding public services, addressing inequality, and bringing down energy prices and inflation. He believed that his victory was nothing more than a referendum on democracy itself.   His win  brings back to the fore a  coalition of Brazil’s large and disproportionately black class of the labouring poor  who gave him the most support. It also included  w...