A victory that led to riots

No sooner had the announcement about Donald Trump’s stunning victory been made on CNN after Hilary Clinton choked back the tears and gracefully accepted defeat I received a number of emails from people in Karachi who had been watching the political drama between two controversial politicians that the United States could have cheerfully done without. The email dispatchers expressed disappointment, dismay, apprehension and alarm, after which they rushed off to their hairdressers and beauty parlors. They saw Trump as a ruthless politician who, under the codpiece of goodwill, harbored a stiletto malevolence. What the new, energetic, freshly scrubbed president of the United States and the Zorro of Pakistan have in common is the desire for change. Change from the old moribund system to a new one — whatever that is supposed to mean. The Republicans by electing Donald Trump think they have achieved that. The PTI chief knows his feet had gotten stuck in the quicksand and he would have to wait two years to launch a fresh tornado. Now that the agony is finally over policymakers in Pakistan are wondering what the strategy of Washington would now be towards Islamabad. Historically, the Republicans have favoured Pakistan while the Democrats have preferred India.

But… one never knows what is in Trump’s mind. Leaving Pakistan aside will he fulfil his campaign promise, ban Muslims from entering the US and after building a wall in the south get the Mexicans to pay for it? And, above everything else, would he make sure that Hillary Clinton is sent to jail for those controversial emails and for not providing adequate protection to the US ambassador to Libya and his staff? Judging by the fierce protests that have been recently taking place across the country after his surprising win there is a strong possibility that locking up a rival presidential candidate who won the popular vote would evoke a violent upheaval from Hilary’s supporters. As it is in Los Angeles thoroughfares have been blocked and 7,000 Oakland protesters carried placards which read ‘He is not my president’ and in areas dissent eventually turned to violence. I don’t agree with the American system of electoral votes which appears grossly unfair, and some protesters in Oakland have also expressed this opinion.

In Britain, the world’s second oldest democracy, the popular vote ushered in Brexit. What the two countries have in common is a dominant white majority, but in neither country does anybody say after the announcement of the winner that there had been any rigging. In Pakistan after every national election the losers shout the election has been rigged. The country that has shown a certain amount of maturity is the world’s biggest democracy — India. After a national election, irrespective of the amount of bribery, corruption and bullying that takes place, the losers accept the verdict of the election commissioner with a certain resignation and don’t go around announcing that there had been any irregularity in the counting process.

President Trump who has no administrative experience but a narcissistic fixation may soon discover his orchid will begin to wilt when the enormity of his task begins to sink in. Benyamin Netanyahu is already treating Trump as a comrade in arms, but in the United States there is already considerable apprehension that white racist thugs like the Neo-Nazis will attack all minorities, particularly Muslims, African Americans, Hispanics and recent immigrants from Africa. As it is there is a plan afoot to deport all people who have entered the country illegally. But the first task of a man who wants to make America great is to smash the IS. If he teams up with Russia he is likely to succeed… but he won’t be able to extinguish the jihadi spirit which the West ignited in the first place.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2016.

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