The place of the dead, the time of dictatorship: Nostalgia, sovereignty, and the corpse of Ferdinand Marcos

Abstract

In 1993, the body of former Philippine dictator, Ferdinand E Marcos, was moved from Honolulu, Hawaii, where he died in exile, to a private mausoleum attached to his ancestral home in Batac, Ilocos Norte. Preserved and placed in a refrigerated coffin while his wife, Imelda, lobbied for his burial at the Heroes’ Cemetery, Marcos’s body remained on display until 2016, when permission for his interment was granted by the newly elected president, Rodrigo Duterte. Drawing on fieldwork conducted at the Marcos Mausoleum prior to the controversial burial and at the protests that came in its wake, this essay examines the sense of loss and longing that has animated the rise of authoritarian nostalgia. Banished yet unburied, the dictator’s embalmed corpse, I suggest, speaks to what remains unmourned under democracy and which thus always threatens to return—namely, a figure of unfettered freedom and authority, whose power might be said to extend over life, death, and time itself. I argue that it is this figure—the figure of a sovereign gone missing—that authoritarian nostalgia takes as its object and which grows more seductive in light of the hollowing out of popular sovereignty that has come to define the post-revolutionary experience.

The emperor, the lion and the peacock: Monuments and contested state sovereignty in contemporary Ethiopia

“…In recent years, such a cult was revitalized after the sudden death of Meles Zenawi in 2012. It was spectacularly performed in the burial of the Meles Zenawi’s mortal remains at the Holy Trinity Cathedral next to those of Haile Selassie I, plus state-sponsored national mourning (Hess-Nielsen, 2013: 7)—henceforth grounding the EPRDF’s claim to sovereignty in the memory of its dead political leader (see also Benedicto, 2021). With the renovation of the palace, Abiy Ahmed now extended the list of the dead political leaders, rebuilding the national pantheon for his unifying state project.…”

Dictators Never Die: Political Transition, Dynastic Regime Recovery and the 2021 Suharto Commemoration in Indonesia

“…12 The close proximity between authoritarianism and democracy in transitional countries suggests that autocrats, living or dead, have the potential "to raise their heads" whenever democracy falters. 13 Suharto's six children and their close associates retain considerable wealth and power in "post-Suharto" Indonesia. They do not have a provincial stronghold like the Marcos family, but they are able to influence political movements and engage in memory politics.…”

Geopsychiatry and political determinants of mental health in the Philippines

“…The Philippines is a lower-middle-income country with a mixed economy and about 110 million people (Alibudbud, 2023b;Guinto et al, 2021;Maravilla & Tan, 2021). It also exemplifies the multi-faceted impact of climate change and the political determinants of mental health, being a climate-vulnerable nation with a history of corruption and political instability (Alibudbud, 2023b;Benedicto, 2021;Maravilla & Tan, 2021;Sri et al, 2023;The World Bank, 2022).…”

“…In general, corruption, coupled with the amplified inequities resulting from climate change, may worsen the preexisting political and social challenges that can have a negative impact on mental health in the Philippines, including income inequality, widespread poverty, unemployment, underemployment, and limited access to healthcare and education (Benedicto, 2021;Maravilla & Tan, 2021;Sri et al, 2023;The World Bank, 2022). To address these challenges, there is a need for greater collaboration between stakeholders from various fields, such as sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, psychiatry, and public health.…”

“…Political instability and corruption can also contribute to the challenges faced by the mental health system in the Philippines (Benedicto, 2021; Lalu, 2019; Maravilla & Tan, 2021). For instance, an official of the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) was charged with graft for allegedly allowing a company to monopolize projects at the NCMH, costing the government at least P80 million and resulting in a building that is ‘bare and not functional’ (Lalu, 2019).…”