WASHINGTON CHAOS: TRUMP’S TRAGEDY
THE MOST TRAGIC ASPECT IS THAT THIS DISGRACEFUL DRAMA WAS AUTHORED BY THE INCUMBENT PRESIDENT. I recall that during the first Fijian coup of 1987, the electorally defeated prime minister remained silent; it’s only later that we discovered his role in the
The attack on Washington’s Capitol is worse than what we witnessed on 9/11. It is a deep and internal wound inflicted by one’s own citizens on the body politic in the very heart of the nation.The siege and the enemy is within.
Worse, it was incited by an elected President of the USA.
Its consequences will leave a more damaging and dark scars on the American psyche for at least a generation and several elections.
This assault on the citadel of democracy, the bastion of freedom,the temple of liberty, will leave its stains long after a new President is inaugurated on January 20.
Doubtless Joe Biden, in all his decency and calm courage, will bring the healing touch and bind the wounds of a deeply divided nation.
The most tragic aspect is that this disgraceful drama was authored by the incumbent President.
Trump has been universally condemned for his vaulting ambition to remain in power when he and his party have been so comprehensively defeated by the voters.
As the thugs and thieves were breaking doors of the citadel, the democrats in Georgia were taking control of the Republican dominated Senate.
Two stunning victories for unknown individuals in a state which has been predominantly white Republican for decades.
Capitol Hill, the temple of democracy for many, became a den of thieves and thugs.
Now the Democrats control all three levels of legitimate power given by the Constitution: the Presidency, the Senate and the House of Reps.
In Fiji
In a painful way, it must remind some of us of what happened in our fledgling Fijian Parliament on May 14, 1987 and again in 2000 with all its disastrous consequences.
We begin to realise how fragile is any democracy and how the axis of evil is within our society; in fact, within us.
One man’s ambition, as in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, can lead to such bloodiness on the soil of a nation and the soul of a civilization.
A nation takes a long time to heal these wounds and individuals die disillusioned in the process.
It happened in Little Fiji
The then Prime Minister Dr Timoci Bavadra became its first prominent victim.
Since then so many others, including those who perpetrated or enabled such an evil act to take place in a Parliament, the most sacred landmark of national freedom and the sacred symbol of all our liberties.
When such man-made tragedies happen, a nation must lead itself into self-introspection, individually and collectively.
Doubtless, American scholars, pundits, media experts will write their tomes trying to understand and explain this nefarious happening in the heart of America in the capital, aptly named Washington.
It’s here you’ll see the noble Lincoln memorial. The assassinated Abe Lincoln remains the greatest president of the USA. And he was a Republican. The great tragedy in life is that those who were trusted by the people remained silent when Mr Trump pumped in such toxic lies in the minds of men and women who believed in him.
And those who knew what he was doing kept quiet for personal gains. It has been said that a greater evil is when good men and women remain silent when lies are propagated. Or worse than lies is to know the truth and do not speak it.
I recall that during the first Fijian coup of 1987, the electorally defeated prime minister remained silent; it’s only later that we discovered his role in the coup.
The Governor- General too remained inactive and later the Queen, too, declined to see the elected and deposed prime minister who had taken the oath of office in his Queen’s name, reinstated.
Such are ironies of history and the history of betrayal.
And the misguided colonel who staged the act of treason against a people still harbours ambition to be the prime minister of a country that he and his soldiers in league with defeated politicians betrayed so ignominiously.
To their credit though it must be said that some of them tried to redeem themselves.But the road to redemption, like the path of perdition, is a long road. But it’s never too late to begin that journey.
However, the American experience has far wider implications.The voice of the USA as the great defender of democracy is now severely diminished, compromised.
Authoritarian regimes must be celebrating this great American humiliation.
As if a clod washed away reduces the continent.
With all its flawed origins, and upheavals of slavery, civil wars, conquests, assassinations, America is a unique experiment in democracy.
I’ve just begun reading Barack Obama’s magnificent Presidential Memoirs titled A Promised Land.
And to think Mr Donald J Trump succeeded Obama is the 45th President of the USA!
Mr Trump, by a recent count, has told at least 25,000 lies through his tweets and speeches.
He continued to distort truths even after he lost by seven million votes— the largest margin in US presidential elections.
Of course America will recover from this mayhem on January 6.
Just as we in the Pacific always show immense resilience after every cyclone.
People with faith in freedom and human decency have always survived. That is our hope always even through a Holocaust and a Hiroshima.
The important thing is to ensure that Mr Donald J Trump never again dreams of being the President of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy.
The second nightmare, like the Second Coming, will be more pitiless and the Centre may not hold and things will fall apart.