The coronavirus has captured and monopolized the attention of–and discourse among–academics, world leaders, media outlets, and societies worldwide. Not a minute goes by without literal or figurative exposure to the virus. The respiratory disease has spread to 177 countries to date and has left economies and tens of thousands of people in its wake. This global pandemic has reinvigorated age-old debates and discussions concerning diplomacy, border protection, race, trade, economy, technology, gender, culture, law, and the environment.
It has simultaneously empowered governments with a whole host of new powers to stymie political dissent and lawfully subdue existing protests and demonstrations. In order to contain the spread of COVID-19, governments worldwide have implemented emergency measures aimed at reducing large crowds gathering in enclosed spaces. This theoretically gives them wide-ranging abilities to curb resistance under the legitimate guise of disease control and prevention. Simultaneously, it can create disunity among protestors by creating a self-policing effect, wherein some demonstrators may wish to prioritize their health over achieving the goals of their protest.
For example, street demonstrations in Algeria began last year after former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika sought a fifth term in office, resulting in a leaderless movement called Hirak. Even after the military pressured him to resign, however, protests continued, demanding systemic change in street protests that are scheduled every Tuesday and Friday. Yet, on March 12, after the number of coronavirus cases in the country rose to 26, with 2 deaths, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered the closure of schools and universities and banned all sporting events and political, social, and cultural gatherings. While some steadfast supporters say Hirak will continue until the “system is uprooted” and that “neither the coronavirus nor the cholera” will stop them, others are “worried” about becoming infected by the coronavirus and have said that they will no longer attend. One Twitter user wrote, “You won't be of much help to Algeria if you're dead.” As a result of the government’s emergency measures and the self-policing effects of a rapidly spreading virus, there are significantly fewer demonstrators on the streets of Algeria. In fact, Khaled Drareni, a high-profile Algerian journalist, argues that the government is using the coronavirus as a “pretext” to “dissuade people from going out and protest[ing]”.
Likewise, protests in Lebanon began in October 2019 over tax hikes on gasoline, tobacco, and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls and morphed into a larger anti-establishment movement. However, after the number of coronavirus cases in the country surpassed 100, the Lebanese government told its citizens that it is their “duty” to remain home as part of a two-week lockdown that bans “gatherings in public and private places”. Consequently, the streets of Beirut, as well as calls for systemic change, have grown notably quieter.
Similarly, the ongoing protests in Hong Kong began in March 2019 over the Hong Kong government's introduction of a constitutional amendment that would allow fugitive offenders to be extradited to mainland China. However, despite the bill being withdrawn, the protests continued as an enduring symbol of anti-China sentiment. Although there are currently no bans on public gatherings, the public evidently still carries scars from the devastating impact of the 2003 SARS crisis, which killed 299 Hong Kongers. Streets that were trodden by one in four Hong Kongers during the height of protests last year are now “eerily quiet”. Yet, aside from the self-policing aspect of the current pandemic, Jane Poon, co-president of the Victoria Hongkongers Association, posits that the authorities are using coronavirus-induced panic to make several high-profile arrests as the “chances of backlash are low” while people are “mostly avoiding gathering in large groups”.
In France, the Yellow Vests protests began in October 2018 over rising fuel prices and costs of living, and have evolved into a larger movement with a goal of government transparency and accountability. However, after the number of coronavirus cases in the country surged past 3,500, with over 70 deaths, President Emmanuel Macron announced the closure of schools and public gatherings of more than 100 people. At its peak, the movement had over 287,000 protestors. Yet, this past week's figures indicate numbers closer to 400. Furthermore, Macron has used the coronavirus to try and deflect criticism from himself and engender unity amongst all French people by saying that their common enemy is the “invisible, elusive” virus, and that, without their cooperation, COVID-19 would continue to make “progress”.
In Chile, protests began in October 2019 over increased subway fares, cost of living, privatization, and inequality in the country. It has now transformed into a wider disestablishmentarian movement demanding the resignation of President Sebastian Piñera and a structural overhaul of education, health, and pension systems. At their height, protests in Santiago attracted tens of thousands of Chileans, resulting in 31 deaths at the hands of law enforcement. However, after the number of COVID-19 cases in the country surpassed 43, Piñera banned public events with more than 500 people as part of a 90-day State of Emergency. Consequently, the army has been put in charge of public order and security, empowering the military to “control the movement of people and goods” by imposing curfews, dispersing crowds, and brutally arresting those who do not comply with these orders. As a result, street protests have essentially come to a standstill.
The Iraqi protests, too, began in October of last year. They were driven by high levels of corruption, rising unemployment, plummeting wages, poor public services, and burgeoning anti-American and anti-Iranian sentiment. Protestors are demanding a complete overhaul of the existing administration, but have been met with bullets, hot water, and pepper and tear gas, leading to roughly 700 deaths, over 27,00 injuries, and about 2,800 arrests. Alongside a perceived lack of change and fear of violence and arrest, the coronavirus has caused the number of protesters to nosedive from a few thousand demonstrators to just a few hundred.
These states are hardly alone in arguably using a global pandemic as a pretext to crack down on political dissent.
After the number of coronavirus cases in Russia reached 20, the government banned social gatherings of more than 5,000 people. Curiously, however, this took place on the same day that Vladimir Putin put his weight behind a proposal to allow him to remain in office until 2036. That proposal has now been approved and signed into law. In the past, political demonstrations in Moscow have attracted tens of thousands of people. For example, in August 2019, over 60,000 Russians gathered outside Putin's office to protest against opposition candidates being banned from running in municipal elections.
On March 5 in Kyrgyzstan, a court forbade a women's rights march from taking place on March 8 due to overt fears of the coronavirus. However, organizers of the event suspect that this was merely a “smokescreen to halt an event that has irked the authorities in the past”, considering that there were no confirmed cases of the virus in the country at the time and that bans have not been placed on other large public gatherings.
Ultimately, bans on large public gatherings are required to curb the spread of the coronavirus. However, in some countries, these necessary policies have come under suspicious circumstances, suggesting that the underlying motives of governmental restrictions to contain this pandemic may not be entirely altruistic or medically-motivated.
That being said, these protests would have lost their momentum regardless of the veiled intentions of critique-phobic governments. This is seen in the self-policing behaviors of public demonstrators, who are practicing social distancing of their own volition. However, it is also seen in both the news and on social media, where the coronavirus has seized control of political discourse at large, to the detriment of all other issues of note.
Therefore, while governments may have used the coronavirus as a false pretext to contain dissent, an unintended consequence of the virus has been the resulting tunnel vision among the media and the public, wherein these two factors have collectively caused protests to lose their steam and the concerns guiding those protests to fade into relative obscurity.
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg called on activists worldwide to “keep [their] numbers low but [their] spirits high” through a ‘digital strike’. However, even online, it appears that the public attention has shifted in its entirety to the #coronavirus, the helping hand that suppressive governments didn’t know they needed.
Dwindling Demonstrations: Are COVID-19 Decrees Designed to Contain Both Disease & Dissent?
The coronavirus pandemic has caused tunnel vision among both the media and the public.
March 21, 2020
IMAGE SOURCE: APPro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong