Donald Trump is going to be the next president of the United States. After eight years under the liberal-minded Democrats, the conservative Republicans will also look towards another four years with a slight but nevertheless a credible majority in the both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
In a highly charged campaign where the vociferous, anti-establishment Trump was often compared with our own President Rodrigo Duterte, it looks like this is the year for populism. Consider, for example, the unthinkable drive to the presidency of Duterte, who was not even in the running as a candidate a year ago. Consider also the stunning and once-unthinkable outcome of the referendum by Brits to leave the European Union.
Trump himself ran almost as an independent, abhorred by the Republicans for his demeanor and his bad mouth.
In the end, as with our own president, the American electorate apparently does not see the ability to spew out cuss words as a hindrance to running their country.
For human rights advocates, a presidency under Hillary Clinton would have augured well vis-à-vis the country’s image amidst the drug war unleashed by Duterte. What will our life be with Trump in the Oval Office?
First, the United States has barely given much attention to the Philippines as its foreign policy agenda has of late been concentrated on the Middle East. Under either Trump or Clinton, this was not expected to change. The United States, even under a Trump presidency, cannot just immediately sweep under the rug the mess that its continuing war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
But things might change if Trump were to really follow through on his campaign promises. This will in fact jibe with Duterte’s war against criminality and the drug trade. We might even see a sudden about-turn or an expanded relationship that brings in Russia (not an enemy of Trump during the elections) and the United States together as allies.
These are strange times and we should expect the unexpected: twists and turns that are predicated not on established styles and well-trodden, long-known paths but unexplored yet open options, no matter how untried.
These two presidents, Duterte and Trump, after all won on the backs of poor and deprived voters who saw in them the opportunity to flaunt elitist politics, personified by Clinton in the US and Mar Roxas in the Philippines. Whether these voters made the right decision is to be seen shortly and in the next four years for the US and five years for the Philippines.
I am pretty certain that our own Duterte will concede that the US might still be a friend with Trump in the Oval Office.
But then there is the issued of thousands of undocumented Filipinos whose lives now hang in the balance. Will Trump return them to the Philippines as he promised in his campaign sorties? And will this not cause a dent in what is sure to be a friendly beginning with our equally populist president?
These are questions best answered by time. Suffice to say that, while I was with friends and relatives in Penang, Malaysia, last week, all those we talked with there had nothing but praise for Duterte. You feel that, for the first time, non-Filipinos look at the ordinary Pinoy as someone to befriend because he or she now looks taller for voting in a president that has broken away from our traditional dependent relationship with the US, for example.
In one instance, a Chinese lady by the name of G. T. Lim who rode with us on the bus on our way to Penang Hill could not help but ask us: “Are you Filipinos?” After we replied in the affirmative, she unabashedly continued, “You have a very strong president now. That is very good. Not like the previous one who wasted six years doing nothing. And then there was that sister of his. Oh how terrible!”
Duterte appears to have an appreciative audience even with some of our Malaysian neighbors. Let us hope that he will not squander this as the years roll by. Popular platforms, populist presidents after all also need to deliver.
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“The Power of Pen” (POP) comes to the Visayas on Saturday 19 November 2016. POP is a hands-on training for those interested in food writing and food critiquing. Organized annually in Manila since 2009
by Stram Inc., POP will be held for the first time outside Manila in cooperation with the University of San Carlos Press.
If you are interested in a career as food critic or food writer/contributor for newspapers, magazines or even your own blog or if you have been planning to write a cookbook, this is the event for you. Among the speakers during this day-long forum are Michaela Fenix (author and food writer for the Philippine Daily Inquirer); Myrna Segismundo (founder of the Doreen Gamboa Food Writing Competition); Anne Marie Ozaeta (editor in chief, FOOD by ABS-CBN Publishing); Louella Alix (author of Hikay: The Culinary Heritage of Cebu); and yours truly. Registration is pegged at P1,200 plus VAT (Student rate is 600 pesos), which covers refreshments, lunch and a certificate of participation. The event will be held at Dingman Hall, 2nd floor of A. Dingman Building, USC Downtown Campus (former Main Campus) the neoclassical building you see on P. Del Rosario Street, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For more information, please call Tina of USC Press at 2300 100 loc. 290.