The world seemed to be currently in crisis. By this I don’t mean the natural disasters and global warming (which a lot of right wingers and sceptics are still denying) but the world political orders. Recent events in Hong Kong, America and Australia really led me to ask – is this the end of old school politics?
Politics is never meant to be about people generally. It will always serve the interest of a specific group that by any means rise to power and move its interests and agenda forward. It will be naïve to even think that democracy is fair politics but the main difference is it offers a blue print for change and people would have the “power” to change government when they want.
This leads to what is happening in the United States at the moment. Donald Trump has risen from a butt end joke in the Republican President race to a front runner that seems to be no stopping at all. The other alternative is Ted Cruz, a similar clone to Donald Trump but a lot more, well, political. The fact that Donald Trump defied all odds to get to this stage was beyond a lot of people’s expectations. However when we look at what was happening in United States in the past 8 years we can see why. Since Barrack Obama became the first African-American President the Republicans made it clear that they would give him a hard time in the House. This went to the point of not just trying to vote down policies that are good for general Americans, e.g. Obama Care, but to a point of shutting down the Government, leaving thousands of civil servants almost financially stranded. With this kind of behaviour, no wonder people are sick of politicians and starting to look for an alternative. Donald Trump did not hide the fact that he is ignorant in policy making or international diplomacy. Donald Trump acted like a school yard bully and a spoiled brat. But the different he offers is that he doesn’t do political talks and he gears his media campaign in this nature to “talk to the general Americans”. It is no rocket science to understand why Donald Trump is actually trumping his more seasoned political opponents.
In Australia, similar things are happening. Australia had 5 Prime Ministers in 5 years and it had become a joke to the international arena. The Rudd-Gillard-Rudd-Abbott-Turnbull wombo combo is proving too much for the Australian people. During this period not really a lot of useful policies showed any traction or continuity. Scandals came one after another and it became quite obvious to the general public that these people who claimed to represent them are after, all about themselves. This gave rise to a group of independents who eventually held the balance in the Parliament. Traditional politicians on all sides hate them because as major parties their majority no longer counts and have to leave their fates to these independent members’ hands. This came the recent voting system change to try to eliminate these independent Members of the Parliament at the next election. The Greens whom once seemed to be a viable option outside of the Labor and the Coalition camps had become devil advocates themselves by siding with the major parties on this matter and turned themselves into nothing but just another bunch of politicians who are all about themselves. The democracy that was supposed to support people’s power change in Australia is changing its nature. It has become more and more about a democracy that supports people who are already powerful and the Australian public is sick of it. This is reflected by the current High Court challenge to the voting change.
In Hong Kong, since the Yellow Umbrella Movement, China had tightened its grip further to control the freedom of speech in this Special Administrative Region. The disappearance of the five publishers who publish scandalous books about the Chinese government outside of the Chinese territory but then showed up in Chinese custody in the mainland drew huge alarm to the freedom this ex-British Colony once enjoyed. Further the took down of the film “Ten Years” that painted a pessimistic view of the territory in ten years’ time while it was still selling to full houses every show reflected that Chinese initiated and self-inflicted censorships are starting to get a strong foothold in this once free and autonomous place. The people of Hong Kong are not prepared to lie down and take the punch though. The award of “Ten Years” with the Best Picture gong in the latest Hong Kong Film Awards shows that artists in Hong Kong are fighting for their freedom and the tug of war between this seemingly small place and the Chinese juggernaut is far from over. The fact that the Chief Executive is losing support both locally and in the mainland also showed that the shine of old school politics is wearing off.
So where do we go from here? There are two possibilities, a) the old political systems fall into disarray and the political entities descend into an orderless state; or b) new social political orders will rise and replace the old worn out system and set up new political orders. At the moment I would optimistically believe in the second option as our society had gone too far to forgo everything it has established. The cost is too great and both the governing and the governed know. None of them will be willing to give it all up so they will need to find a new way to get out of this corner. Donald Trump might not be a great or even viable option but he inevitably had triggered this alarm for this process to happen. In Australia the upcoming election will be the clearest indicator that the Australian public is sick of the current political establishments so it will be interesting to study its outcome. As for Hong Kong there will be more and more creative and innovative ways exhibited by the people there to express their will to the world.
We share wait and see, and then hope for the best.
