A New York Times writer ... Corona gave authoritarian leaders a chance to gain more power

The Corona Virus pandemic causes the world to stop, and with anxious citizens asking officials to take action, leaders around the world use their executive powers to form a dictatorial authority with little resistance, and they issue emergency decrees and legislation that make them the upper hand during the epidemic, so will they abandon them?

The writer, Sillam Gebrikidan, a New York Times investigative reporter at her London office, says in her newspaper article that the Corona virus (Covid-19) has given tyrants and others an opportunity to seize more power in light of the spread of the epidemic.

She adds that governments and human rights groups agree that these extraordinary times require exceptional action, and that states need new powers to close their borders, enforce quarantines, and track down the injured.

Constitutional attorneys are quoted as saying that many of these procedures are protected under international rules.

Panic, cover and grab
But critics say some governments are using the public health crisis as a cover to seize new powers unrelated to the outbreak of the virus, with few guarantees that their new authority will not be abused.

The writer notes that laws quickly take hold across a wide range of political systems in authoritarian countries like Jordan, troubled democracies like Hungary, and traditional democracies like Britain, and that there are few measures to ensure that these acquired new powers are abolished once the threat passes.

She says that while new laws increase state control and allow governments to detain people indefinitely, and with violations of freedom of assembly and expression violated, these laws can also shape civic life, politics, and the economy for decades to come.

The writer adds that the Corona pandemic has reshaped international norms. Observing systems have been praised in South Korea and Singapore that helped slow the spread of infection, even though these systems would have been blamed in normal circumstances, and the governments that initially criticized China for putting millions of Its citizens in stone quit the same procedures that Beijing followed.

Track, suppress and domineering
It notes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized the country's internal security agency to track citizens using a secret set of mobile phone data that was developed to combat terrorism.

By tracking people's movements, the government can punish those who defy removal orders by imprisoning them for up to six months, and Netanyahu has ordered the closure of the courts, which will allow him to delay his scheduled appearance on the court due to corruption charges.

The article adds that the new emergency laws revive old fears of martial law in some regions of the world. The Philippine Congress passed legislation last week granting President Rodrigo Duterte emergency powers and $ 5.4 billion to deal with the epidemic, and legislators eased a previous draft law that would have The president is allowed to take over private business.

Some countries use the Corona pandemic to eliminate the opposition. In Jordan, after the emergency "defense law" gave ample space to his office, Prime Minister Omar Razzaz said that his government "will deal firmly" with anyone who publishes "rumors, fabrications and false news that cause panic."