[yt_dropcap type=”square” font=”” size=”14″ color=”#000″ background=”#fff” ] L [/yt_dropcap]et’s start from the most recent happening. Bill O’Reilly interviews Trump for Fox news. He asks him ‘Do you respect Putin’? Trump replies ‘Yes, I do!!!’ The interview rolls on. After a few moments, Bill O’Reilly tells him ‘Putin’s a killer (meaning – How can you even think of having good relations with a killer?).’
Trump coolly replies with a lazy shrug ‘There are a lot of killers out there. You think we (the US) are so innocent???’ This remark unsurprisingly prompted a lot of opposition and criticism in social media with ‘patriotic Americans’ taking Trump to task for his unsavoury and un-presidential comments. Yet, this writer believes that it was ultimate showmanship from Trump and one of the reasons why he became the President.
People have criticised Trump saying that he has very little knowledge of politics, he has no experience, does not know how policies are made, is naive about Russia, has a mercurial temper etc. What his critics have got totally wrong about him is the fact that Trump has got a far sharper understanding about international politics than his critics will ever give him credit for.
Trump knows that better relations with Russia will end lots of unnecessary conflicts and will ultimately help America. He knows that rather than fighting a three-way war (with Russia and Assad on one hand and ISIS on the other) and complicating the mess leading to a no-win situation for all involved, it is better to co-operate with Russia and take on the ISIS. With that, let’s come to the ‘Muslim ban.’
A week ago, Trump signed an executive order banning refugees of seven countries – Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and Libya from entering the US for at least 90 days. It also froze the entire US refugee program for 120 days and reduced drastically the number of refugees that the US will accept in fiscal year 2017. Immediately there was an outpouring of protests in and outside the US.
His critics are taking pleasure by calling it a ‘#MuslimBan’. Now that the emotional outpouring is mostly done with, let’s sit down calmly and think through the whole ban. First of all, it is not a permanent ban. This is only a temporary stop of 120 days so that proper measures can be studied about immigration / refugees and a decision could be taken and implemented. Secondly, the people who took disastrous decisions which worsened the war leading to thousands and thousands of deaths are happily sitting at home. Yet, Trump is heavily criticised for enforcing the so-called ‘Muslim Ban.’
Fine, let us assume that what the critics are saying is right!!! Let’s call it a Muslim Ban. Now what is a Muslim Ban? If all the Muslims are banned, then it can be called as a Muslim ban. In this situation, are all the Muslims banned? There are about 50 Muslim majority countries in the world. Out of that if 7 out of 50 countries are banned, then how can it be called a Muslim Ban? The fact is that only 1/7th out of the total Muslim majority countries were banned. So the critics would do well to call it a ‘1/7 Muslim ban’.
Which will lead us to the next question ‘Why did he choose Muslim majority countries only?’ The Trump administration did not choose these countries at all. These were selected by the Obama administration as “countries of concern.” This was done in December 2015 initially for Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Syria. Two months later, the Obama administration added Libya, Somalia and Yemen to the list.
Fine it has become a norm to ask the craziest questions just to criticise Trump. So let’s ask one more. Why were only Muslim majority countries selected? This, in the face of it, seems to be a reasonable allegation. Hence the next time Donald Trump is selecting the list, he should be more careful.
For example, for argument’s sake, let’s assume that the same seven countries are being placed under the terror watch list. After zeroing in on around 3 countries, he should remove the remaining four. Then one Christian majority country, one Hindu majority country, one Jewish majority country and one Buddhist majority country can all be added. In this way, equal distribution to all religions can be made. Doing this can also earn Donald Trump the title of ‘A Secular leader.’
Finally what is Obama’s reaction to the immigration ban? Obama’s spokesperson said that Obama feels that individuals protesting are “exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.” Obama, in private might well be thinking “What is this Trump guy up to? I have been in office for eight years and yet Trump has done more in eight days than what I did in eight years.” Since those are his thoughts about Trump, his public comments could be excused.
Amidst this entire furore, two things have been completely missed. One is how is Iran in the “countries of concern” list? If its position is justified in the list, then how come a nuclear deal was signed with Iran? Iran is the only country among the seven that has a central working government. It also has a moderate government. Logically, it should not have been there in the list.
Secondly, Trump missed an opportunity by failing to condemn the terrorist attack on Muslims that happened in Quebec, Canada by a white French-Canadian Christian student. Innocent people of all religions should be protected from terrorist attacks. Trump would have done well to condemn the attack. With regards to the temporary immigration stop, if Trump says that he will do everything to stop the Syrian war and he needs a temporary 90/120 day stop on immigration, what is wrong with that?
Finally a word needs to be mentioned about Demonetisation in India since that was also a move which prompted widespread criticism from analysts. Critics and economists including Kaushik Basu, Ruchir Sharma, Amartya Sen and Manmohan Singh among others lambasted Modi’s move by pointing out various reasons- it will lead to disaster, common people are suffering terribly, it is slowing down economic growth, why take measures to bring only such a small quantity of black money etc. That question that has been foremost throughout the country in the last 20-30 years is ‘who will bell the cat (who will take on corruption)?’
Indians, in specific, have become numb to corruption. It happens in the residence when he/she tries to buy/sell property undervaluing the property so as to gain financially from it. It happens at the office when he/she submits inflated bills, sometimes in connivance with the management, the accounts department, the auditors etc. It is universal in India!!!
Yet, when someone with guts comes on to bell the cat, the same critics, who raised the initial question of belling the cat, are turning around and now finding fault with the type, quality and sound of the bell. As for their concern for the common man/woman, if the commoner turns around and says “We are not bothered about the temporary inconvenience. Even if a small segment of the corrupt suffer, we are willing to bear the inconvenience”, what would they do? They probably will turn around to the common man/woman and scream “You don’t know what is good for you. Only we know what is good for you!!!”
As for the critics who have been continuously trying to take down Modi and Trump, this writer says “Good try. Better luck next time….”
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are those of the author
