Imani Tafari-Ama | Presidents, pardons and superpower sunsets

This past week, Donald Trump became the 47th President of the United States (POTUS). His swearing-in ceremony, on a cold January 20, overshadowed Martin Luther King’s birthday, a national holiday. In the short time since his inauguration, Trump presided over sweeping changes. The Gaza ceasefire stands prominent among the Trumpian moves.

Exiting President Biden claimed that the ceasefire deal was the same proposal put forward by his administration. Indeed, the mechanics were remarkably similar but the will to implement this initiative was nowhere to be found among the Democratic party. Against the odds, in his second incarnation as the POTUS, Trump, the deal-maker, put a pause to the Palestinian crucible. By so doing, he validated the overwhelming Arab vote that helped to rocket him back to the White House and thereby claimed his own place in history for halting the suffering of this severely dehumanised people

The world spent a year and a half protesting against the Gaza genocide, which was livestreamed globally. Yet these protests failed to move the Biden-Harris administration to use their military might and economic power to restrain Israel. Instead, the US enabled their partner with billions, multiple-thousand-pound bombs and other weapons, air and sea defence support, veto-cover in the United Nations’ Security Council, and sanctions against those daring to speak the truth.

Was there an understated quid pro quo to this truce? The three-phase hostility-cessation plan is vulnerable because Israel and Hamas were threatened by Trump’s edict to broker a peace package before he formally took office. This was one of the most momentous moves that the newly minted POTUS could make in the Middle East/West Asia. The relentless killing of Hamas fighters and civilians by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), armed and politically backed by the US, created a nightmare for the living. The war claimed hundreds of thousands of victims although the official death toll was numbered at just under 50,000. The multi-pronged trauma transgressed the immediate boundaries of the tragedy, creating vicarious victims of those sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

NEWSMAKER-IN-CHIEF

Trump seems determined to be the newsmaker-in-chief from day one. Driven by predictable self-interest, he has declared a desire to end the slaughter of at least two of the contemporary wars that provide evidence of the cynical political misogyny that currently defines political methodology in too many countries. Trump accused President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and President Putin of Russia of sacrificing nearly two million people in a bloodbath that could have been avoided. This was a finger-wagging exercise against his predecessors’ hawkish foreign policy and weaponisation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In the same breath, Trump signed several executive orders, including a sweeping pardon of the January 6 Capitol offenders whose freedom from prison he ordered with the flourish of his presidential pen.

One has to wonder how much is cloak and how much is dagger in the rapid-fire routing of the old regime and the ringing in of new interpretations of Republicanism. With billionaires liberally numbered among the new kids on the USA political block and conservative cultural registers being reset, nervousness and unease are among the mixed emotions with which the changing of the guard is being viewed domestically and around the world. The “make America great again” (MAGA) clarion call comes at a time when the uni-polar superpower status of the USA is under severe threat.

The recent Russia-hosted summit of BRICS-led nations signalled the emergence of the kind of non-aligned movement that Michael Manley sought to establish in response to the socio-economic dominance of the Global North on the backs of the hyper-exploited countries of the Global South. A multi-polar solution, led by the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa coalition, has developed a sustainable model of cooperation, which has the potential of radically shifting the existing world economic order.

The combined population of the countries joining BRICS reveals the pragmatism of defining the Global South as the four-fifths world rather than the pejorative designation of the Third World. President Trump has his work cut out for him trying to make tariffs and sanctions work to maintain US dominance. As the cooperation effected among BRICS to prevent the collapse of Russia demonstrated, countries can trade in their own currencies and craft resilience the transcend carrot-and-stick hegemonies.

PARDONED GARVEY

Not to be outdone, on his last day in office, Biden pardoned Marcus Garvey among other persons accused of criminal actions. The offensive twist to this last-minute gesture was that Garvey, Jamaica’s first national hero, was erroneously accused of mail fraud, a claim contrived in a notoriously compromised court system.

There is a false flag flying in the face of justice with this pardon. It is a contradiction to sully someone’s reputation intergenerationally then claim the moral high ground insinuated by this pardon proceeding. Especially when this is not accompanied by exoneration and compensation for the costs of the damage done. This was an intentional subversion of one of the most significant liberation philosophers and political organisers that embattled Africans “at home and abroad” have known. The Jamaican state and its apparatus must also put action to words to formalise the teaching of Garvey and Garveyism in schools. This will ensure that children in Jamaica can know the content of Marcus Garvey’s contributions beyond platitudes about him being “first National Hero”.

In the twilight of his reign, Biden also walked in Barack Obama’s shoes and reversed the designation of Cuba as a sponsor of state terrorism. This slander has shafted the Cuban state’s chances of exiting the 20th century politically and socio-economically and benefiting from the opportunities of modernity. Cuba saw a light at the end of the cruel embargo tunnel just before Obama left office, only to realise that the brief surge of hope for change was an oncoming train. Before exploring this withdrawal of the suffocating sanctions, the surge towards self-realisation was snuffed out with the advent of President Trump 1.0.

It remains to be seen whether President Trump 2.0 will reinstate the unfair “terrorist” judgement. In his more enlightened personification, will he keep the knee of the US off the neck of this beleaguered revolutionary nation? It is time for the defamatory discourse to cease, to allow the development genius of the Cuban people to come to fruition.

Imani Tafari-Ama, PhD, is a Pan-African advocate and gender and development specialist. Send feedback to i.tafariama@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com