Kam Raslan’s Talking Edge

(Reprinted from The Edge – Options pullout, 21 November 2016 issue)

Dear Kam,
I will forget about it but then I will suddenly remember: Donald Trump will be the next US president. What is going on?
Mr Trumped

Donald Trump is the new US president and that should not make any difference to us out here in little ole Malaysia, and yet even before he has actually taken over the White House, our ringgit has already tumbled because of him. Thanks, Trump. Having said that, it does make a surprising change that our economic woes are not self-inflicted. If he does what he said during his campaign, then he will upend global alliances and the world economy. Things are going to change radically, and probably not for the better. Already, my “to hell with the cost” holiday plans have changed to “how much?!” I am just glad I do not have to pay for children studying overseas, otherwise I would have to bring them back and console myself with the knowledge that they can at least already read and write. I can’t carry on panicking like this, so I need to find a coping mechanism. What should I do?

My coping policy has been avoidance and also acceptance. I have stopped watching the news and I have stopped reading Facebook in order to avoid admitting that Trump even exists. Avoidance may sound like a psychologically dangerous policy because it is never good to avoid reality but I have accepted that we now face the end of the world as we know it. I do not mean a nuclear apocalypse because I do not believe that Trump’s boss Putin will allow him to simply press any ominous-looking red buttons, but America’s standing in the world has been diminished. If the land of the free and the home of the brave had any lingering cultural or moral standing, it will be quashed as the world watches a fool insult his way through his presidency and also struggles with the understanding that Americans actually voted for this orange idiot. But this will please many because they believe Trump will hasten the collapse of America’s global cultural and military hegemony.

But I could be wrong. Trump might turn out to be a brilliant success by creating new global friendships and global prosperity. Or, more likely, he will be crushed under the weight of presidency and will not even last one term. He appears to me to be like the proverbial dog that keeps barking at cars and does not know what to do now that it has actually caught one.

It has been barely a week but not reading or watching the news has been a very calming experience. The news only tells a story of danger and menace enveloping the world and threatening to invade the home, therefore inducing a moral panic and a foolhardy search for a saviour. Facebook is even worse because it mixes kittens with beheadings (one person even posted a video that combined the two) in one ceaseless scroll. The effect upon me is a combination of fear and desensitisation. On the one hand, I find the images to be frightening and appalling, while on the other, I have to switch off my emotional responses in order to be able to continue at all because I know there is nothing I can do about it. So, it has been nice to get away from the sense of panic and helplessness.

Instead, I have been concentrating on my own work, which has been both gratifying and exciting. I have been writing a novel and I can’t tell you how exciting it has been to watch the word count inch steadily upwards. My novel might not be any good and it definitely will not change the world or my country, but it is the only contribution I can make. Being at home and fretting does not appear to have changed a damn thing, so perhaps it is time to concentrate on my own stuff.

Dear Kam,
I am not American but I like Donald Trump. The world needs a strong man to solve everything.
Mr Trumpeter

Apparently, there were many Hispanics in America who voted for Donald Trump despite all the terrible things he said about them. This sounds crazy. Why would they do that? Trump did point his scorn exclusively at Mexicans. His Hispanic voters may not have Mexican roots and so perhaps did not think he was talking about them. Anyway, Trump’s grasp of geography is so feeble that he probably thinks the whole of Central and South America is called Mexico. Granted, the overwhelming majority of Hispanic Americans did not vote for Trump but some did. How come? There is a theory as to why some Hispanics chose to vote for Trump despite his and his supporters’ obvious hatred. The theory is not entirely convincing but might be worth considering nonetheless.

The theory goes that many of these Hispanic voters were born into political cultures that promoted the notion of a “strong man” as the only potential salvation for nations in crisis. Propaganda and the political culture sold the idea that democracy is itself a danger and that only the strong man can then be the saviour. And in Trump, they saw the strong man of their oldest dreams.

The theory may or may not be correct but the idea of the strong man is very tempting for many of us. I happen to think that Barack Obama has been a good US president but he did fail at being that nation’s cheerleader-in-chief and instead, chose to be a slightly dull professor. Immediately upon taking office, he failed to follow up the excitement of his campaign rhetoric with expensive and empty but emotionally symbolic gestures like building new highways and opening new factories. Obama could never have been authoritarian but he could have done many of the populist deeds that voters hope to see in a strong man. I imagine that Trump will be photographed opening many new autobahns, probably built by his children.

The strong man has been popping up all over the world recently, many of them inspired by the ultimate strong man, Vladimir Putin, who has astonishingly high approval ratings despite, or because, of him being incredibly ruthless. The problem for the strong man is that he must keep winning or else his aura of super human invincibility is broken. And the best way to win is to solve problems that either do not exist or that have been created by the strong man himself.

I do not happen to like the strong man because he creates more victims than enduring solutions. But I am optimistic that the present fad for the strong man is only a temporary blip and after we see them all fail, the world will return to choosing some slightly dull professors.

Reprinted with the kind permission of