A risky agenda

Eric came all the way from Texas to Islamabad to witness the first Davis Cup tie played in Pakistan in 12 years. His real interest during the visit was to discuss plans for helping street children become good tennis players. Eric has donated thousands of dollars and bag loads of rackets to encourage promising boys to develop their skills. He is doing what he can, within his means, to help others. There are Americans like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates who have donated billions to improve the lives of the underprivileged all over the world.

Just as you are thinking of individual Americans who are passionate about assisting others at home and abroad, the media reminds you of the tensions building up in Washington and other US centres. The battle lines are becoming clearer with each passing day. At the heart of this struggle is the declared intent of the Trump team to replace the existing political order in the US and the prevailing global system of trade.

The new order aims at pushing the US towards neo-nationalism that would impact the entire world: the US becoming a fortress of some sort that would be a retreat from the world order shaped under its lead for over 70 years. The consequences of trying to implement catch phrases like ‘Making America great again’ and ‘America first’ would be significant. It would be Brexit multiplied many times over.

When the British voted to leave the European Union, they were opposing further large-scale migration of the new EU members. The US rejecting immigration is like rejecting the model that had made America great in the first place.

Trump and his ideologues have a very different vision of the US: a thinly veiled design of white supremacy. This vision encompasses measures aimed at restricting non-white immigration and practically stopping Muslim migration to the US. Terms like ‘Christian heritage’ and ‘Judeo-Christian values’ are being used to justify the steps that are restricting future migration.

The white supremacists think that a Republican-dominated Congress should be a willing partner in overthrowing the neo-liberal order. The judiciary is the only obstacle in their path and obviously that is hurting Trump who has criticised the justices for curbing his powers. The challenge thus posed to the judiciary is unprecedented. The outcome of the legal battle over the selective and discriminatory travel ban will determine how far Trump can go in implementing his exclusive agenda.

The president has lost the case in district and appellate courts because the travel ban is against the fundamental rights enshrined in the US constitution. Secondly, the countries named in the presidential order are not implicated in terror attacks in the US. The courts also rejected the idea of imminent danger of further acts unless the authorities provide evidence to the contrary.

Trump still appears confident that he has acted legally and wants to fight the case in the US Supreme Court to reverse the orders of the lower courts. He denounced the court verdicts as political but the same denunciation can also apply to the highest court. The debate over the sustainability of the ban should not make us overlook that the real motive here is to drastically reduce the arrival of new Muslim migrants in the country of immigrants. The US, however, is a country that was taken to great heights by immigrants of all origins.

Looking at the bigger picture, Trump also wants to remake the existing world order that was built over the past decades. A president who came to office through a quirk of the US election system despite having lost in terms of the popular vote should be careful in trying to harm institutions that were created through consensus at varying levels.

The UN, its affiliated agencies, and the international financial institutions provide a modicum of world governance which has been steered by none other than the US. Trump has spoken against the European Union which is a quasi-confederation based on treaties signed by its members. It has served as a co-pilot to the US in dealing with global, political and economic issues.

Together, the US and the EU represent a formidable global twain. Neither of them will benefit from their sudden breakdown. Without the market of nearly 500 million, the US and the world in general, will have to negotiate tariffs with 28 individual countries.

Trump has been particularly virulent about the losses in jobs as a result of globalisation. Many other nations, including Pakistan, have been hit by the relocation of industrial jobs to a small number of countries led by China. It may be too late to revive industries that have been rendered uncompetitive with the lowering of trade barriers. Pakistan’s textile industry is a case in point.

Many countries desire to revive their redundant industries but Trump has made it a cause celebre without understanding the dynamics of globalisation. Simply put, it may not be worth the effort.

Trump has greater chances of success if he moves from his unrealistic mantra of ‘Buy American, hire American’ and makes serious efforts aimed at creating new job opportunities in both the private and public sectors.

It would be better for the US and the world if the new administration gave up its idea of reinventing the wheel of the existing world order and began working with the international community to make changes in the common interest of all rather than insisting on ‘America first.’

Email: saeed.saeedk@gmail.com