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Brant Houston University of Illinois

Brant Houston University of Illinoisolli.illinois.edu/downloads/courses/2017 Fall/Oligarchs Finding... · University of Illinois. ... The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos blamed the

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Brant HoustonUniversity of Illinois

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41708844

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41708844

Andrej Babis has long decried what he says is a "campaign" against him by a self-serving political establishment.

He sees the hand of this shadowy deep state everywhere; the media, the Czech prosecutor's office, the Slovak Constitutional Court, even the EU's anti-fraud unit. A host of enemies ranged against him in a vast anti-Babis conspiracy.

Well, if there was such a conspiracy, it's failed. His message to voters - that he alone could heal the ills of the Czech

political and economic system, that he alone could decapitate the hydra of corruption, that he alone could defend Czech national interests -appears to have been heard. They have given him a convincing mandate. He has truly crushed his rivals.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41708844

The 63-year-old made his estimated $4bn (£3bn) fortune in chemicals, food and media - but he has also faced numerous scandals including a fraud indictment and accusations he was a communist-era police agent.

He says he would not bring the Czech Republic in to the eurozone but he wants the country to stay in the EU, telling Reuters he would propose changes to the European Council on issues like food quality and a "solution to migration".

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/judge-dismisses-russian-billionaires-suit-against-ap/2017/10/17/0d2ee8e4-b3a5-11e7-9b93-b97043e57a22_story.html?utm_term=.1f35e7e92116

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/world/asia/guo-wengui-china-corruption-xi-jinping.html?action=click&contentCollection=Business%20Day&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/world/asia/china-xi-business-entrepreneurs.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FXi%20Jinping&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection&_r=0

Indonesia

Philippines

https://www.forbes.com/indonesia-billionaires/#3d5fc21545b7

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbespr/2016/12/01/rise-in-fortunes-for-more-than-half-of-50-richest-on-forbes-indonesia-rich-list/#699cbab1573c

In 1997, Forbes listed Suharto as the fourth richest person in the world with an individual net worth of $16 billion, despite drawing an annual salary of only $21,000. The Suharto family owned or

controlled 3.6 million hectares of prime Indonesian land, an area comparable to all of Belgium.The family’s method of enrichment expanded in two key ways:They started to take larger shares of deals and contracts…and they spread into far more lines of businesses already populated by established oligarchs. – Jeffrey Winters , “Oligarchy”

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2004/03/how_did_suharto_steal_35_billion.html

Suharto’s removal [in 1998] had a dual effect with divergent consequences. It resulted in a transition to democracy , but it also caused quite a distinct transition to an untamed ruling oligarchy.

Indonesia moved to ruling oligarchy as increasing captured and dominated the democratics process. (Institutions not strong enough to guarantee property rights and enforcement.

Indonesian oligarchs are now freer and oligarchs are more free lancing.They use their material power resources for wealth and property defense.- Winters

Although Suharto is long gone, oligarchy in Indonesia continues to be strongly influenced by the legacies of these origins.

Oligarchy not achieved until the 1970s.

Suharto family initially focused their theft and skimming on natural resources and the state sector, effectively robbing the nation and the treasury, their business groups soon mushroomed and diversified.

They survived by forming conglomerates with competitive companies, often Chinese or foreign.

http://www.insideindonesia.org/who-will-tame-the-oligarchs

That includes six of the country’s 10 richest, and 12 of its wealthiest 20.They are Budi and Michael Hartono; Susilo Wonowidjojo; Anthony Salim; Eka Tjipta Widjaja; Chairul Tanjung; Murdaya Poo; Theodore Rachmat; Putera Sampoerna; Peter Sondakh; Sukanto Tanoto; Martua Sitorus; Ciliandra Fangiono; Prajogo Pangestu; and Bachtiar Karim.

Almost all of these men established themselves as members of the Southeast Asian nation’s oligarchy during the 33-year reign of strongman President Suharto, who fell in 1998.

https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/indonesia-for-sale-in-depth-series-on-corruption-palm-oil-and-rainforests-starts-tomorrow/

https://www.ft.com/content/93701bcc-40f1-11e5-9abe-5b335da3a90e

Armed and dangerous oligarchs Oligarchs began in 1800s The most consistent factor is all oligarchs have been

fully armed In fact the Philippines has only managed to

experience warring, ruling and sultanistic forms through its history

- Jeffrey Winters – “Oligarch”

New oligarchs include the Chinese businessmen like the Tans, Gokongweisand Sys,” he said. “The oligarchy is fluid. It really depends on who is in power.”Parreño said only a small percentage of families controlled as much as 80 percent of the country’s wealth.The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos blamed the oligarchs for the ills of the Old Society, the term he used to describe the Philippines before martial law.Next to communists, the oligarchs were said to be the main enemies of martial law. This was because there was an urgent need for “the democratization of wealth,” Marcos said in his book, “The Democratic Revolution in the Philippines.”

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/803165/in-the-know-oligarchs-and-cronies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Filipino_millionaires#2017_Billionaires

“Marcos used his plenary Martial Law powersto advise all oligarchs who dreamt of opposing or supplanting him that property was not power since at the stroke of the martial pen it ceased to be property.” - Anderson The presidents goal was not eliminate oligarchs but to tame

and control them. - Winters

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/06/2016-donald-trump-paul-manafort-ferinand-marcos-philippines-1980s-213952

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/10bn-dollar-question-marcos-millions-nick-davies

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/802996/duterte-to-destroy-monster-oligarchs

By highlighting Ongpin for shaming, DU30 actually moderated the bite and sting of his declaration that Philippine wealth is controlled by only a few, because Ongpin is hardly the only oligarch in this country. The reality is that this country is controlled and run by oligarchs in cahoots with political dynasts.

A foreign friend and analyst has described the Philippines in this fashion: “The Philippines is a rich country, where the people are poor, and there is extreme wealth sitting alongside extreme poverty. It is an archipelago of 7,107 islands, and an oligarchipelago of 100 ruling families.

http://www.manilatimes.net/has-the-philippines-become-an-oligarchipelago/278206/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/01/marcos-family-considers-returning-loot-bongbong-looks-philippine/

http://www.businessinsider.com/major-study-finds-that-the-us-is-an-oligarchy-2014-4