The American Presidential election degenerated further with the new developments. The FBI has reopened the case of handling of the emails by Hillary Clinton when she was the Secretary of the state. The FBI obtained a search warrant against Huma Abedin, Vice Chair Woman of the Clinton campaign. An American of Indian descent, she is alleged to have tried to hide the emails which could damage Hillary. It can prove fatal to Hillary’s campaign because of being so close to the election.
As if this was not enough for Hillary, Donna Brazile got snubbed by the CNN for leaking the questions to Hillary before her debate with Bernie Sander in the Democratic primary. The CNN is severing ties with her.
The ugly campaign keeps getting uglier. The western concept of getting elected by the majority, no matter how you get it, is the root cause of the problem.
Long ago, Oliver Cromwell obtained a majority in the Parliament by preventing the members who supported negotiations with King Charles to attend while the resolution against the King was being discussed. The King was executed. After Cromwell’s death, he was posthumously executed. His body was dug and hanged and beheaded. The severed head was hung before the Westminster Hall for more than twenty years.
Four centuries later George Bush was elected President by using similar means. His brother was the Governor of Florida at that time. The police prevented many black voters to cast their vote. He won in Florida with a very small margin. Many other irregularities were alleged to have been committed. When I heard that the black voters were prevented from voting I wrote that I felt very much at home in America because I used to hear such stories in India but never thought this could happen in America.
As opposed to election by numbers, the eastern concept of democracy is based upon selection of the right person by consensus. After looking at what is happening in America some eastern countries have started claiming that their system works better.
The Chinese media is telling its people that they certainly do not need to have such democracy. This democracy could not have produced a great leader like Mao Tse Tung and they need a leader like Mao rather than the western democracy. It is also telling the people that President Xi Jinping can become another Mao. Incidentally, Xi has the same height as Mao had.
Like China, Iran is also claiming that its system is working better than America. The Iranian media is telling its people that the true face of America has been exposed by this election and its leaders were right about America. Some of the Iranian leaders have called America the great Satan.
Each country should evolve its own system of choosing its leaders rather than adopting the western model of democracy. The truth is that the eastern concepts of democracy and secularism are superior to the western concepts. Because of the western domination of the last two centuries the superior eastern concepts have been suppressed and their inferior concepts have been promoted. As America is relatively becoming weaker and the other countries are getting stronger, the truth is coming out. At least, Trump is more willing to accept the truth than Hillary. This could be one of the reasons that he not only seems to be catching up with Hillary but some polls are showing him ahead.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
