The Trumpeting of racism

November 18, 2016, 7:06 pm 

Before you take on the next Trump story drink a glass of water, and feel pleased that the price of water will not be raised from December 1st. A hike in the price of water in Sri Lana is something the Trump victory could not do.

It looks like Sri Lanka is gladly stepping into the Age of Trump. He is the new nationalist for Sri Lanka to follow, bringing the message of power to the majority, at a time of what many see as deadly uncertainty, with a new constitution in the making, and words like devolution and federalism threatening the smooth lives of the national thinking class.

Letters to the Editor, features -on politics, foreign policy and international relations, and commentators on TV, are full of the stuff of Trump; the stuff that promises a glorious future for Sri Lanka, without having to bother about the minorities, whoever they may be. Playing the Trump card will soon be the assurance of success for politicians, thinking of new strategies on breaking away from Yahapaalanaya, without telling anyone they are moving to the ranks of the Rajapaksas.

Mahinda Rajapaksa was possibly the first in Sri Lanka, and even South Asia, to send a message of congratulations to Donald Trump on his success in the US polls. He recalled the Republican help in declaring the LTTE as terrorists, before Obama came with all his stuff about human rights and the promotion of UNHCR resolutions against Sri Lanka. He may also have recalled the false statement Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, made at the UN Security Council about rape by Sri Lankan troops, and the donations she got from the pro-LTTE ‘Tamils for Clinton", in her 2008 campaign against Barack Obama.

So Trump is the Man of the Moment and also the Man of the Future. He is the hope of those who believe in majoritarian power; the ready response to those who keep talking of reconciliation and understanding, of wholly unnecessary things like missing persons, and anything about war crimes. Let’s not forget that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Hussein, who has been talking so much about hybrid courts and other issues here, did openly oppose Donald Trump’s campaign for election. Seeing the new liberating role of Trump to make America (White) Great Again, is also telling what we should think of Zeid Ra’ad Hussein, and the trends in the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Watch out UNHCR – we will soon be ready to take you on – because Donald Trump will be with us!

Although Trump did not win the actual majority vote in the US elections, the fact that he won, and how he won is what matters. His message went to the "American" majority…the White majority, outside the large cities, in the urban and rural areas of the US, largely those without degrees. That is the comparison of success, which can be repeated in Sri Lanka, when the time comes to change the tune of yahapaalanaya; not having to talk about corruption that remains a huge problem for all sides today.

There is great glory to be seen by these nationalist thinkers in the "Whites Only" graffiti scrawled on an Episcopalian church in Silver Spring, and other doors in Maryland; and swastikas drawn in school bathrooms elsewhere. There is much to be learnt from those anti-Trump demonstrators in their thousands carrying placards that say #Not My President, after a hate filled election. It may not be very much related to us, but the schoolboys in California, who chanted "Build a Wall", and the words "Heil Trump" outside another church, must be inspiring stuff for those who see Donald Trump and his political trumpet as the answer to the problems faced by the majority Sinhala Buddhists of Sri Lanka; when a new constitution threatens to change the history of this land and its people.

Isn’t it strange that a white, Ecumenical Christian, who was appealing to the white American Christians, of suburban and rural America, faced with huge economic problems due to neo-liberalism and Globalization through decades, gives a message of liberation to the majority Sinhala Buddhists of this country? Such is the stuff of politics and "nationalism", as it grows within a community and not a nation. The shouts in North Carolina that "Black Lives Don’t Matter" would be a magnet for the majority strategists here. The American Confederate Flag, which is no more the US National Flag, which fluttered in some parts of protesting America, is a good reminder for those interested here to carry the Sinhala Flag with pride, without its supposed distortion by stripes for the minorities.

The Trump Sinhala nationalists may also like to know that November 9, when Donald Trump won the US presidency, was the anniversary of "Kristallnacht" (Crystal Night) - that night in November 9, 1938, when the Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses, killed 100 Jews, and saw the real rise of majority German Nazism in that country. It will be the new "Trumpnacht" that will inspire all majoritarian nationalists.

Keeping in touch with the Trump style of using tweets for effective communication in his campaign, we had an interesting tweet here, from Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who said that Trump’s victory meant the common citizens were fed up with career politicians. The full tweet was: "One of the reasons Donald Trump won was because people are sick of career politicians delivering rhetoric instead of results. This is a lesson for Sri Lanka to consider." Coming from a man who is formally not a politician, this tells a big story of the place of politicians in our country, present and past. This lesson would be of much value to the Yahapalana leaders, and also his brother – Mahinda, who has a pretty long history as a career politician, seeking a new birth in his political life cycle. Will this lesson be learnt by him and those who see in him the undefeated leader of the majority, with all hopes for the future? Will he be the Trump of the majority that plays down all others?

We will have to see how the Trump trumpet keeps blowing in the years ahead.