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These politicians without shame . . .

Published : Sunday, 1 January, 2017 at 12:00 AM  Count : 298
Syed Badrul Ahsan
Quite a few shameless men happen to be around in politics these days. In the aftermath of the American election, the reality of how shamelessness has triumphed over decency comes through loud and clear. Donald Trump will not be a good president. Indeed, it is quite possible that he will commit so many wrongs and indulge in such uncouth behaviour that a clamour will arise for his removal from the White House.
But that is beside the point, for now. That Trump, despite his questionable election to the presidency, remains blissfully free of any degree of shame becomes clear through his tweets. Nothing about him has so far been presidential, for he has tweeted his anger about the media, about nearly everything. And just as a UN Security Council vote on Israel's illegal settlements on occupied Arab land loomed last week, he advised the Obama administration to veto the resolution. The shame was not so much in Trump's feelings of sympathy for Tel Aviv as it was in his public proffering of advice to an administration which is still in office. It has never been the norm for a president-elect in America to comment on or offer suggestions to a president who is yet the country's official leader. Trump enhanced his shameless nature by holding out the threat, once the UNSC voted 14-0 (with the United States abstaining) against Israel's settlements, that things would be different after his inauguration. It was the language of a neighbourhood bully.
And then there is that other politician, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has in this past week been growing too big for his boots. Decency has clearly taken leave of him, a truth revealed through his dressing down on Christmas Day of ambassadors from the countries which voted for the UNSC resolution. It did not occur to him that those ambassadors were not beholden to him, that it was not for him to ask them why their governments voted the way they did in New York. The Israeli prime minister's lack of shame extended to his public expression of ire against President Obama, who he thinks conspired to have the vote go against Israel. But such shamelessness is nothing new for Netanyahu. Last year he travelled to Washington at the invitation of the Republican-dominated Congress to address its joint session. Obama did not invite him, which should have held him back. But he went anyway, feeling not at all embarrassed.
The new president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has a foul mouth which he uses liberally and shamelessly. Thousands of suspected drug dealers have been murdered since he took office months ago and he keeps promising to kill more. The United Nations cannot drive any sense into him. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch look on aghast as he goes on spewing expletives and nonsense and playing to the gallery. The gallery, of course, is but another term for his supporters who have seen nothing wrong with his mafia methods. The world condemns him, but he simply does not care. Rule of law is in his country swiftly being replaced by mob justice. Echoes of Duterte's shamelessness are to be found in the atrocious behaviour of the Myanmar regime towards the country's Rohingyas. Aung San Suu Kyi, once an icon of democracy, says nothing in commiseration for these helpless people. An entire government and an entire citizenry have thus lost any sense of shame.
Dictators all over the world have thrived on an absence of shame in their politics. The latest autocrat without any shame is the Gambia's Yahya Jammeh, who first conceded defeat in the recent presidential election and then, within a week, reversed himself. He was not, he said, accepting the results. Four African heads of state travelled to the Gambia to ask him to step down and hand over power to the electorally victorious Adama Barrow, to no avail. The country's army chief, another shameless man, made it clear that since Jammeh was his president who paid him his salary, he could not and would not go against him. It makes you feel the army chief is a domestic servant of the president.
A profoundly shameless politician is Nigel Farage, till recently leader of the UK Independent Party. On the day after the Brexit vote and with an irritating grin all over his face, he taunted his fellow lawmakers in the European Parliament, accusing them of not having done a single day's job in their lives. His lack of shame has till now not let him see the chaos he and other Brexiteers have caused through the Leave Vote in June this year. Farage's shameless character was once again exposed when he did not at all feel shocked or embarrassed at Donald Trump's suggestion that he be appointed Britain's ambassador in Washington. No British minister responds to phone calls from Farage. He could have kept quiet and not let the embarrassment come into the public domain. But since shame is a missing word in his vocabulary, he let it be known, like a petulant schoolboy, that no minister took his calls. Why should they?
In this past month, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani have seen their reputations take a slide. Both men wished to be secretary of state in the incoming Trump administration. It was quite obvious how desperate they were about getting the job. In the end, with their public images dented a good deal, they were passed over in favour of someone else. How will Romney and Giuliani live down this shame, this rejection? Never mind.r
Syed Badrul Ahsan is Associate Editor, The Daily Observer





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