Under Trump’s shadow

Frankly, I find it difficult to collect my thoughts and locate the focus of this column that has to be about the advent of the Trump era. It is such an emotional moment and I find some solace in the knowledge that my depression is shared by so many citizens of this world and, specifically, by millions in the very nation in which Donald Trump is now the 45th president.

One measure of how I feel is that in spite of professional compulsion and my weakness for the live coverage of major events, even in areas I am not very familiar with, I did not watch television on Friday night when Donald Trump was taking oath in Washington’s forenoon and then delivering his address. Yes, I did make an attempt to catch with the proceedings later on the web.

In any case, the world apparently has changed. Donald Trump’s presidency has been launched and it is not surprising that his inaugural address has echoed his campaign rhetoric and is bereft of any assurance to heal the divisions that have wounded the US – and the world, to some extent. While he spoke, there were violent protests not very far from the Capitol.

The New York Times’s editorial has summed it up, “President Trump presented such a graceless and disturbingly ahistoric vision of America on Friday that his inaugural address cast more doubt than give hope on his presidency”. It added, “Though expectations couldn’t be terribly high, the opening moments of Mr Trump’s presidency were beyond disappointing”.

Now, we did have time to reconcile with the fact that someone like Trump was elected president of the US. The shock suffered on November 9, 2016, should have eased by now. But the inauguration seems to have triggered a relapse of that pain and grief. And we remain in the process of making sense of what this means.

Of course, Trump’s triumph is a warning about how bigoted and xenophobic passions are rising in many Western societies. Ominous signs were evident in June when Britain voted, in a referendum, to opt out of the European Union. The radical right is seen to be gaining strength in countries like France. The winds of change have ruffled many certainties about our existing systems of governance.

For instance, the World Economic Forum held this week in Davos, Switzerland, has highlighted five distinct challenges: a breakdown in global collaboration, loss of identity, slow economic growth, a crisis in capitalism and preparing for the oncoming ‘fourth industrial revolution’.

One headline on this occasion may have jolted the world’s conscience though it is hardly any revelation. We were reminded that global inequality has grown to the point that just eight of the planet’s richest people now hold wealth equal to that of the poorest half of the world’s population. Just try to comprehend this fact in human terms.

We, in Pakistan, cannot be oblivious to what is happening at the global level. As far as inequality is concerned, we may notice that it exists in our country not just in a material sense – the social inequality that marks the state of the oppressed and poor is inhuman.

So, what does Trump’s presidency mean for us? This is not the moment to embark upon a serious analysis of our foreign policy entanglements with the US. Besides, Trump in his inaugural address has devoted more attention to the protectionist and isolationist theme. He does not understand the world except in the context of his domestic obsessions.

But we should be very concerned about Trump’s animosity towards Muslims. One of his early contentions in the campaign was to check the immigration of Muslims. Even though he talked mainly about internal affairs, he also made this assertion in his inaugural address that the US will “unite the civilised world against radical Islamic terrorism which we will be completely eradicate from the face of the Earth”.

This reference to ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ distinguishes his approach from that of Barak Obama who, as he had himself explained, was reluctant to put it like this to not lump militants with more than a billion Muslims around the world; and Muslims are also an important presence in the US. In fact, our sense of relationship with Trump’s country is linked to our close relatives and friends who have settled there.

Pakistan is very relevant to any discourse on terrorism and the US has been closely associated with our military campaigns against terrorist outfits. If Trump is promising to “eradicate” radical Islamic terrorism “completely from the face of the earth,” he will have to engage Pakistan and also interfere with the frustrating disequilibrium of the Middle East. We should not forget that this is the region that symbolised the failure of Obama’s foreign policy.

We will have to wait and see how Trump, with his remarkable inadequacies as a leader, will accomplish a seemingly impossible mission. At this time, one is more concerned with the emotional distress that Trump has kindled. He is a tragedy for the entire world. Even though there is widespread suspicion in the rest of the world about America’s super power initiatives and intentions, its democratic values are universally recognised.

There are many reasons why the world is so involved in what happens in America. At times, this involvement acquires a personal dimension. I feel bereaved by the Trump presidency also because of the affection I had for Obama. What an unbelievable contrast there is between the two and it boggles the mind that one would follow the other. I was overwhelmed with emotion when Obama became the first Black person to become the president of the US. Now we have a White supremacist in the White House.

No doubt we will miss Obama. Look at the kind of person Trump is and think of how he compares with Obama. We know that Trump has taken office with less popular support than any new president in modern times – a fact that has been certified by opinion surveys. The Americans now have a president who does not read books. As for Obama, I loved reading an article in The New York Times this week with the heading, “Obama’s secret to surviving the White House years: books”.

Not reading books may be fine. But America now has a president who has behaved “as if he were a television wrestling star”. For that matter, we will keep watching the show.

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com