By Nur Adilah Ramli
I remember myself enjoying The Apprentice; I especially loved watching business mogul, Donald Trump, on ‘reality’ TV show. But seeing him running for the US Presidency did not give me the same feeling, though he was amusing in all the three Presidential debates he had with Hillary Clinton.
My friend asked me whom would I vote for, and my answer was “Definitely not Trump.” Of course, we were just casually talking about it as we did not get to participate in the election.
Trump, to me, is an engaging speaker. For some reason, I prefer listening to him talking than Hillary Clinton. While I see Hillary Clinton as someone who is politically correct, I see Trump as someone who is honest – a brutally honest person, if I may add.
On 9 November, I joined the US Presidential election result viewing party held at JW Marriott Hotel, Bukit Bintang. There, I had the opportunity to talk to a few Americans about how they felt about the election, and of course, about whom they would like to have as the President. I received various answers and mixed reactions.
I asked one American man whom he would vote for, and his answer was, “I vote for American.” That, to me, means it does not matter whether it is Trump or Clinton; what matters is how the person can serve the common good.
Also during that event, Professor Shakila Yacob, from the Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, briefly talked about the scenarios surrounding the US Presidential election. She narrated about her American friend whose family had been a staunch supporter of the Democrat but has now turned to the Republican Party for their distaste for Clinton.
Prof. Shakila also added that the Americans look at other aspects in deciding whom to vote for; for one thing, the Americans wants change, and it was said that Clinton would not be any different from Obama in terms of their policymaking. Americans have lost their trust in the way America being run. They might have grown tired of unnecessary bureaucracies. Each American would have many things to say about why the majority of them voted for Trump who is deemed to be racist, misogynistic, narcissistic and many more labels that put him in a bad light.
One has to wonder why a person like Trump who is knee-deep in controversies – which could be even more than his rival, Hillary Clinton – managed to get the majority electoral votes and therefore won the Presidency, leaving Hillary Clinton far behind.
It is not as simple to generalise that those who voted for Trump are equally, if not more racist than Trump. As mentioned, the Americans want changes. And to be fair, Trump is not exactly a ‘monster’; at least, he stands for non-interventionist approach and therefore seen as someone who is largely concerned with the US domestic affairs.
However, his vow on destroying the ISIS by forming alliances with the Middle Eastern countries gives me chills as the effort in doing so might be at the expense of the civilians. But compared to Clinton whose policy looks good on paper, Trump, to me, speaks to the Americans. It is hard to say whether Trump would make a good President, but I wish well for the Americans. ***