By Akhmad Zamroni
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| Trump vs Biden (Source: Reuters) |
Why did
someone like Donald Trump become president? Why is this controversial figure
who, according to a survey by many media, is disliked by many circles,
including his own people, able to win the presidential election in a country
that claims to be the champion of democracy? Did the election process for the
president of the United States that resulted in him becoming president really
run clean and democratic?
Trump’s
presence in the politics of the United States (US) in particular and the world
in general raises a big question mark. His election as US president caused a
strange feeling in the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions and possibly
billions of people around the world. His emergence as the number one person in
the US has also generated resentment and antipathy in various parts of the
world, including within the US.
In the
view of the international community, Donald Trump is not a democrat: he does
not properly adhere to and apply democratic principles and values as they
should. He is also not a figure who respects and upholds human rights (HAM).
His campaigns ahead of the presidential election and his policies after
becoming president made it clear that he was an intolerant and discriminatory
politician.
The
businessman who owns a gambling house (casino) and was caught several times
harassing the woman repeatedly expressed his dislike and anti-Islam attitude.
Just because several terror incidents acted in the name of Islam, he made a
generalization that Islam is negative and dangerous so that it needs to be
watched out and limited. He cannot act like most or almost all heads of state
in the world who think that outside of several terrorist groups acting in the
name of Islam, Islam in many parts of the world is capable of showing a
tolerant, friendly, and peaceful face, thus generalizing that Islam is bad and
evil. very imprecise. He also aggressively cornered and attacked immigrants.
Without shame and self-awareness that he and white people in the United States
are also immigrants (immigrants), he stated that he would reject or strictly
select immigrants in the US.
With
his prejudiced, discriminatory, racist, disrespectful, and paranoid attitude,
Trump quickly became a controversial figure whom many considered unworthy of
being the leader of a country the size of the US. Not a few Americans
themselves consider him the worst president in US history. The international
community and parts of the US society now seem to include him as a “dangerous
figure and his policies need to be monitored.”
The
problem is returning to the original question: why could he be elected
president of the US? How could the democratic system in the US which is very
sophisticated, well established, and so admired by the world community can pass
someone like him? Is there a mistake in the democratic system in the US so that
a controversial figure like Trump can enter the US presidential candidate?
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| United States Presidential Election 2020 (Source: Reuters) |
Trump’s
case shows that a democratic system is not always able to produce leaders with
integrity and respect for human rights and democracy itself. His election as
president shows that even a highly sophisticated and credible democracy
(system) still contains weaknesses. In other words, democracy that is revered
and considered as the best political system and life can still experience anomalies.
Apart
from the problem of the Republican Party’s negligence in getting him to become a
presidential candidate, Trump’s case clearly demonstrates the inaccuracy and
inadequacy of the democratic system in selecting candidate leaders. This
weakness apparently stems from the inaccurate recruitment of candidate leaders
due to the excessive subjectivity that occurs in political parties and the
masses of candidate supporters. The political party where Trump belongs, namely
the Republican Party, and the masses of supporters, even though they live in a
country where democracy is very well established, it seems that this time they
are unable to break away from narrow primordialism so that figures with racist
characteristics and do not respect human rights like Trump still support them.
And apart from the money politics problem that could occur, those who have an
interest in prioritizing racial or religious groups consider Trump the right
person to be used as ammunition as well as a battle cannon.
As for
the rumors of Russian intervention in the US presidential election which, it is
said with hacks were able to “win” Trump as president, is still a big question
mark and the possibility of being the main determining factor for Trump’s
victory is not significant. Through its hack into the US presidential election
IT system, is it possible that Russia will be able to mobilize the US people to
elect Trump? Could it be that the people of the US were so easily fooled by
Russia? It may happen, but if the American people from the beginning and
basically want leaders who are democratic, tolerant, and non-discriminatory,
any attempt to outsource or manipulate their aspirations will still fail and
they certainly will not vote for Trump. However, in reality Trump became a
winner, so it becomes difficult to deny that the aspirations of some US
citizens have been contaminated by subjectivity and primordialism.
This
proves that democracy which is not supported by objectivity and tolerance can
experience blunders and anomalies. As a system, democracy is clearly very good
for accommodating the interests and fate of all ethnic groups, races, religious
followers, and all human groups because democracy requires equal rights and
obligations for all affairs in the life of society, nation and state. However,
democracy is only a system run by a group of people, if a part of the human
group is wrong (subjective, intolerant, discriminatory, and the like) in
behaving, behaving, and making policies, democracy can backfire. Democracy that
is carried out in this way can transform into an oppressive and destructive
authoritarianism.
And
now, that hypothesis is starting to show its truth through Trump’s power
behavior. Recent developments show that Trump is clearly showing his
iron-fisted and authoritarian nature. He arbitrarily fired FBI Director James
Comey, who was investigating the possibility that Trump’s campaign team had a
relationship with the Russians during the presidential election campaign as
well as investigating the case of Trump’s closest person, Michael Flynn
(National Security Advisor), who was proven to have lied to Mike. Pence (Vice
President) and is suspected of having a secret meeting with Turkish
intelligence. Finally, Trump is also strongly suspected of leaking highly
classified and sensitive US information to Russia.
Now
another question arises: is it possible that Trump will be removed from office
and democracy will recover in the US? If democracy finds its true and full form
again in the United States, Trump’s leadership and activities will certainly
end soon. Democracy cannot go hand in hand with authoritarian leadership.
Wallahu a’lam bissawab.
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