Azad Essa: Trump’s world - a lesson for SA

The writer says if ignored, the electorate will resort to drastic actions even if it hurts them as the US did with president-elect Donald Trump. Picture: Evan Vucci

The writer says if ignored, the electorate will resort to drastic actions even if it hurts them as the US did with president-elect Donald Trump. Picture: Evan Vucci

Published Nov 15, 2016

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When you stop listening to people they will pick the candidate that speaks to their concerns, even in sound bites, writes Azad Essa.

 It seemed inconceivable, but it happened. Donald Trump is now President-elect of the United States.

For all the shock and horror that accompanied the news, it wasn’t all that surprising. America has spoken. They chose to scrub off the status quo, at the cost of their eyes, even their conscience. And no matter your persuasion, one must marvel at the thought of a political outsider stealing away the world’s most coveted position, and that too, without any guile, form or substance. It was a most brutal campaign. And the United States enters unchartered territory, with a political wild card at its helm.

In a less than calamitous scenario, it is possible that Trump will not live up to much of his pre-election talk. The wall with Mexico, the banning of Muslims, the removal of Obamacare may never actually happen as he succumbs to the reality of his new position. But like the Brexit vote in the UK, the rhetoric has already galvanized a wide array of hate crimes against blacks, Latinos, immigrants, and Muslims. There are reports of women being physically assaulted.

So even if Trump doesn’t carry out half of his hateful promises, the precedent exists for citizens to act out on their most vile impulses. Trump may not even last a year in office before he gets impeached over alleged financial irregularities at Trump University. But the damage has already been done. 

And it’s a familiar story. 

Consider India and rise of religious intolerance since Narendra Modi was voted in on a similar ticket of xenophobia and the demonisation of ethnic and religious minorities.

Right-wing Hindu nationalist groups have killed and raped Muslims for eating beef in states like Uttar Pradesh and Himarchal. Meanwhile, anything from student dissent on campus to innocuous Bollywood films with Pakistani actors have been labeled anti-national.

Modi’s government has increasingly looked to control the media landscape. Last week, the government looked to ban NDTV Hindi channel for 24 hours because it revealed “strategically sensitive details” following the attacks against Indian soldiers in Pathankot in January. In Kashmir, the newspaper Kashmir Reader has been banned since October for “inciting violence” during the ongoing uprising that began in July.

Where Trump’s nationalism is geared to protect white interests, Modi’s key constituency remains upper caste Brahmins. Even their slogans were eerily similar. Modi’s 2014 campaign was sold as “Good days are coming”. Trump’s warcry was to “Make America great again”.

Closer to home, the election of Trump has reminded many of us of the extraordinary events that led to demise of our very own Thabo Mbeki, and the election of one Jacob Zuma.

The similarities are too real. Intellectual replaced by populism. Presidential replaced by buffoonery. Then there were allegations of misogyny and sexual assault faced by both Trump and Zuma - issues ignored by both electorates.

But I would be careful to go beyond these cursory comparisons.

Zuma was no reality TV star; he was an astute political operative in the intelligence arm of the ANC. In other words, he was not a political outsider. Zuma’s continued exploitation of Zulu-chauvinism aside, he was voted in by a majority who felt they could relate to him or the ANC,given their liberation history. Of course, they were wrong about him. He too, like Modi and Trump, turned a blind eye to xenophobic attacks on those deemed undesirable to his constituency, especially in KwaZulu-Natal. He, too has tried to tamper with key institutions.

But Trump is a white man after all, of tremendous privilege born out of white-America. As men, Trump and Zuma may be of the same ilk, but as symbols, they represent different realities.

And here lies the lesson for South Africans: it could easily get worse.

When you stop listening to people they will pick the candidate that speaks to their concerns, even in soundbites. When ignored, the electorate will resort to drastic actions even if it hurts them. When the level of disempowerment is so real they will put aside tangible evidence of racism, sexism, bigotry and demagoguery, in the pursuit of making a point. This is not the definition of choice. This is desperation.

We all know that Trump will replace the establishment with an image of his own corruption. For white supremacy, of course, Trump is an immediate crowd thriller. The real impact of his presidency will emerge later.

There will never be a real attempt to change the fortunes of people in the US - the ones who lost their manufacturing jobs in Ohio, or battling to make ends meet in Wisconsin or Michigan.

Meanwhile, the already disenfranchised, those living under the hammer as Native Americans, African Americans, Muslims, and the like, their battle has just escalated.

Back in South Africa, it was Julius Malema and Zwelinzima Vavi who helped push Mbeki out, in a move often accompanied by vile rhetoric. They said they would “kill for Zuma”.

In so doing, they pinned all blame on Mbeki, and thereafter threw in their lot with Zuma. They, like so many others, pretended as if the system did not temper, curate and balance justice and progress for its own sake. It was dishonest and misleading. When they were discarded by the presidency, they switched sides.

Today, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) remains valiant in its fight to oust Zuma. But it is still not clear how much of the EFF is driven by a Shakespearean-like tale of revenge or by a serious, sincere, and sustainable attempt to change the status quo. The ambivalence is unrewarding. Likewise, within pockets of the ANC and now the media, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, current chair of the AU Commission, is being touted as the new messiah, to lead the party and then the country out of eternal damnation. But what does she offer? How will she transform the ANC? Does anyone know? This is another trap, another fallacy, surely.

If we learnt anything from the US election it is that policy must remain central to the electoral process. Democracy is about systems of representation and accountability. And when we make it about personalities, we push democracy ever so closer to willful dictatorships. 

* Essa is a journalist at Al Jazeera. He is also the co-founder of The Daily Vox.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

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