Living through a coup

I was not expecting the events to turn the way they did on January 6. Seeing the insurrection at the United States Capitol on live television, instigated by a man who cares about nothing except himself, and driven by people who believed in repeated lies about the elections, was surreal.

Before the November 2020 elections, many media pundits and analysts had predicted the likelihood of chaos in case President Donald Trump lost, but they had believed that it would be mayhem in the streets, not an attack on the Capitol. As the violent mob attacked the seat of democracy in the country, everyone was blindsided and everyone was scared. As we learn more about the events, there is palpable anger. But there is hope that some good may also come out of the ugly events of last week.

America itself has been a party to many coups around the world — and has not always been the shining star of the moral universe as many would like to believe, yet like every coup and every attempt to attack a democratic system, this attack felt vile, wrong and disturbing. To me, it brought back memories of overthrow of governments in Pakistan that I had seen in the 1990s, and attacks on the Supreme Court (in 1997) led by those who now pontificate about the supremacy of the rule of law.

As we look in the rear-view mirror of the events that transpired last week in Washington, many of us — including those in Pakistan — have tough questions to answer. When in July 2019, the Prime Minister of Pakistan met Mr Trump, half the country was over the moon about the insincere praise from a lying President. In August 2019, the Government of Pakistan awarded Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the strongest supporters and enablers of President Trump, the Hilal-e-Quaid-e-Azam, one of the highest civil awards of the country. I hope there is some introspection about how wrong we were, both individually and at the state level. Some may say that we did not know much, and had no knowledge about their actions and how the future may unfold. Unfortunately that is simply not true. By July 2019, we knew full well what Trump stood for (i.e. nothing except his ego) and the actions of Senator Graham as an enabler of the Trump agenda could not be disputed.

In November 2020, when America went to the polls, an estimated 20% of Muslims in America voted for Trump. That number was down from the typical Muslim vote for Republicans, but still very high knowing all that we had known about the man and what he believed in. There were people in my own circle of Pakistani-Americans who thought Trump was “strong”, “decisive” or even “a man with conservative religious values”. Not sure what all of those voters are thinking right now, but I hope there is some serious self-reflection.

Time’s arrow points only in one direction. We cannot go back in time and undo our collective praise for a man who has done so much damage to the US and the world. But we can, and we should, think about what core values do we want to stand up for. Last week was yet another reminder that authoritarianism is bad — whether it is in Pakistan or the US. Labeling media as an enemy of the people is never okay. Giving literal or proverbial certificates of patriotism is wrong — no matter where it happens. And perhaps most importantly, a reminder that a regime of lies may last a single term or a quarter century, but it never ends well.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2021.

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