From sublime to…?

Head of PPP Media Cell

President Barak Obama’s election as the US black President  was the dream came true of Martin Luther King and the US constitution  but Donald Trump’s winning the elections has mollified the same to the utter shock of within the USA and around the Free World. The election was won by the Republican candidate this time who felt no compunction in uttering comments tantamount to of him being racist, sexist and xenophobia, totally at stark with the primary law of the land, US constitution. Arguably, President Obama’s election was the sublimity of the US much cherished legacies whereas Donald Trump’s as of on the opposite side of the values. However, the choice of the people is the prime consideration and we may criticize it but desist from passing the judgment.  

The overwhelming American white majority has regretfully voted against the doctrine of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, for which the US is known for popularizing throughout its history-- Ideological Wars, World Wars and Cold War etc. Yet despite this, the result of the recent presidential election has shown the majority of the voting public fundamentally giving Donald Trump the mandate to disregard these cherished principles. In fact, he had created an environment of racism, discrimination and xenophobia by design to capitalize on to win the elections. His method in madness may not be justified in the context of the national unity that suffered a setback as is evident from the wave of strong reaction across America.  

Donald Trump based his campaign on the fear white majority, and successfully highlighted the risk to their supremacy from the onslaught of immigrants, thus pushing the balance of political power further towards the minorities. It worked miraculously as the majority of the vote was given to the Republican candidate regardless of his being ‘politically correct or incorrect’. (Political correctness’ stands for rejection of discrimination in all its forms and manifestations and political incorrectness stands for ends justify means). The white majority, through their vote, have clearly made their abhorrence towards their constitutional values loud and clear. It is grotesque irony. Time will bear it out.     

Donald Trump unpredictable and stunning electoral juggernaut to the White House is amazing and frightening at the same time. The widespread and violent rejection of his victory in the US may not take away the due credit he deserves. The upset staged by him is exceedingly exceptional against all the polls and predictions of the political pundits projecting the success of Hilary Clinton as the foregone conclusion. He has proved himself as a strategic of par excellence who secured victory by raising the vote winning issues motivating the dejected white majority to cast their votes for him for their own self-preservation. He was criticized by media projecting him highly controversial but his message hit the right chord of the majority voters who preferred to put the political values in the periphery to perpetuate their hold on the political horizons of the US.

He played aptly on the fear of white Americans projecting his election as the President of the USA would effectively stem the empire building of the brainy, talented and hardworking immigrants who had already occupied their positions in the system pushing them down by stepping on their heads meant for upward mobility. His aversion against the Muslim entering in the United States worked with electrifying impact as the US Indian lobby stood solidly behind him. It was worth mentioning that the Indian lobby had surfaced the second most powerful entity after the Israel in the USA.

 Halting flux of the workers from the Latin American countries by erecting Mexico Wall throughout was another vote winning slogan for Donald Trump that was very reassuring to the American voters especially residing in the white dominated states. He gave damn to the US nationals of those countries origin and remained focused on the white majority throughout his election campaign. His strategy paid him handsomely notwithstanding its incompatibility with the “political correctness” of Americans values – no discrimination on the basis of color, creed or faith and all are entitled to fundamental rights as enshrined in the US constitution.

  On the foreign policy domain, no free lunches are likely to be guiding principle. His blunt projection that the NATO countries must pay for their security and his country will not foot the bill to provide them the security blanket. The USA would not  assume upon itself the role of the police man of NATO at the expense of the American tax payers. This neo-isolationism is not likely to hold ground in the face of the briefing to be given by the US Security Establishment, the symbol of continuity of the country’s security and foreign policy. Its self-righteousness in the domains is total and the new incumbent needs both stamina and relentless determination in order to make inroads against odds. Business is most likely to remain as usual at least for some time because paradigm shift in foreign policy is fiercely gridlocked by many factors beyond the control of Administration no matter how powerful and determined it may be.

His revisiting of the Free Trade Agreements with other countries was not deemed appropriate by the experts. They opined that the pursuit of such policies by USA could not be afforded keeping in view the geo-political and trade interest. With the emergence of China as the Super Power and Russia to fill the resultant void might be enough deterrence for the new US Administration to bow before the unbridled market forces. The inter-dependence of the world economy and the law of sustainability would force the US to fall in line because the cost/benefit analysis of doing so would be beneficial. Donald Trump could not keep the world economy as his hostage because vagaries of international market were not subject to diktats of any country.   

He intended to resort to mollycoddling of India in a bid to contain China and arms twisting of Pakistan to do more and also for its culpability of ever strategic partnership with the new emerging Super-Power, China. India would be a favorite ally very close to Trump and his Administration because he had already made no bones in declaring the country as a natural strategic ally of the USA. His administration was likely to use strong arms tactics against Pakistan forcing it to take action against the proscribed organizations or else face consequences for its reluctance. It would be easier to exert intense pressure because Republicans were also in majority in both the House of Congress.

Pakistan will be wise if it correctly and immediately take the stock of the potential situation and formulate a pre-emptive strategy to meet the challenges of diplomatic offensive of the USA on the insistence of India. 

India is a big country and the international community feels no hesitation in giving it the benefit of doubt keeping in view the compulsions for the furtherance of their national interests. On the other hand, the world will not be so benign towards us, mainly because of the well-entrenched perception of us as running with fox and hunting with hounds. Their interests are better served by engaging the big country while the international law and morality may take the back seat. Negatives of our pursuit of untenable policy are crippling Pakistan diplomatically. India will continue to tighten the noose around our neck without fear of backlash of the world. It will continue till such time Pakistan does not revisit its security and foreign policies aimed at reversing the cycle of diplomatic isolation. The revising must take effect under the auspicious of the Parliament.

Such paradigm shift in our security and foreign policy is bound to ease up the international pressure to the utter dismay of India. If inaction and ambivalence continue to sway our policy planners thinking the forthcoming scenario will certainly be wrought with dangers of pushing the country closer to the brink of diplomatic abyss. The cycle of Pakistan’s redundancy at the international level may surface with the looming dangers of sanctions. Pakistan must not pave the way to hell with whatever intentions and gear up pro-actively to rectify the situation before it bang our doors with vengeance.

Pakistan will certainly be on sound footings to promote its foreign and security policy objectives if it wins over the trust of the international community by addressing the fissures between words and actions so far its policy to defeat terrorism is concerned. Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts could yield positive results in internationalizing Indian human rights violations in Indian Kashmir and also its abject interference in Baluchistan contrary to the UN Charter.  In the absence of such action against the non-state actors even our friends may decline to share the burden of our policy of playing on the both sides of the street. World is not stupid. Even within the country it is difficult to find takers of our security and foreign policy except the captive audiences. The time has come to constitute Parliamentary Committee on Security. Weathering of the dust storm by the Parliament is the only choice.

muhammadshaheedi@yahoo.com