THE war against climate change is all but lost. As every commander standing on the ecological battlefield can see, there is no wholehearted all-of-humanity effort to win the fight. Instead, our focus is on beating the other guy in the Ukraine War, the Gaza War, the looming Taiwan-South China Sea War, African ethno-religious tribal wars and South America’s armed social conflicts.
The fight has all along been “We versus Them”, and geopolitical feuds are yet another manifestation of our mental bifurcation. Contrary to expectations that the fall of Soviet communism would usher in a century of peace, the respite was temporary. The Cold War has been replaced by new tensions generated by the US in its push for global democratic triumphs and its desire for world dominance.
President Joe Biden, in a virtual address to 120 world leaders last year, said: “The United States is building on our enduring commitment to boost democracy globally.” He called the “battle between democracy and autocracy the defining challenge of our time.”
Before you choose sides, do you think there is inherent conflict between autocracy and democracy, that it is either Russia or the liberal West, either democratic Israel or Palestinian autocracy, either despotic China or sovereign Taiwan?
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As a child, your parents made all the decisions for you. In school, your teacher barked the order to line up, and you obeyed. As an adult, you listen to your religious leaders and follow the dictates of your religion unhesitatingly. Do you have a say in formulating doctrines and rituals? Do you elect your preachers?
Is it different in politics? Only on the surface. Do you have a choice over the nominees for election? No, they are chosen by their political parties. Do you help determine the criteria for selection? No. That is the sole prerogative of their parties. Despite these autocratic features embedded deeply in our lives, the US refuses to acknowledge that such influences have a bearing on its domestic politics as in many other democratic countries, including Malaysia.
Four years ago, Donald Trump told a large religious crowd in a Florida election speech: “I believe we have God on our side.” Preachers at the rally enticed voters by proclaiming that God would tear down the “demonic altars” raised against Trump.
Forty-eight years ago when the US celebrated its 200th independence anniversary, television preacher Jerry Falwell proclaimed the return of religious autocracy to politics. “This idea of ‘religion and politics’ don’t mix was developed by the devil,” he shouted out to a crowd of 25,000. He coaxed them to be unflinchingly loyal to one specific political party – a line that we similarly hear in Malaysia.
Brazil exemplifies the growing trend of bringing religion into politics, with religious leaders openly telling the faithful how to cast their votes and revealing their own party preferences. The vast majority in any congregation will embrace the politics of their preachers.
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Across South America, more politicians are courting the religious vote. Malaysia set an early lead in this direction, but religious votes fracture nations. South America is a single-religion continent, and the “religion card” play is slicing that religion into more pronounced fragments that will grow hostile to one another instead of cooperating with each another to fight climate change.
American democracy is celebrated as typifying the “equal voting power for everyone” standard, but the system grants unequal rights as state legislators redraw electoral boundaries to carve out congressional districts in accordance with an area’s political party preference. It is happening in most democratic nations.
Four political scientists authored a working paper last year that showed the US legislative seat malapportionment to be the highest among 20 democratic countries surveyed for ideological bias. Britain’s July general election produced the most skewed result in British history when Labour swept to victory with 63% of the seats won on only one-third of the votes.
A fundamental question that nobody asks and which you must start asking is: What is the basic purpose of government, whether autocratic or democratic? A 2021 poll in South Africa found that two-thirds of South Africans “would be willing to give up elections” if an unelected government could provide security, housing and jobs.
Democratic America has failed to provide security to its people, and the number of homeless is running into tens of thousands. Courts of law have ruled that the Second Amendment of the US Constitution grants the people a right to keep and bear arms.
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The US Congress has long made a democratic choice to recognise gun ownership as a God-given sacred right. Its vote is well in line with the findings of a 2021 survey that pro-gun views are linked to a strong religious belief in a cosmic battle between ultimate good and evil being waged on earth as well as in the spiritual realm that makes the world threatening. Gun restrictions are thus seen as threatening God-given rights to protect society against the agents of evil.
With ownership of 120.5 firearms per 100 American residents, which is almost half the world’s civilian-held guns, school shootings are a regular occurrence. A 14-year-old boy has been charged with shooting dead two fellow students and two teachers at a high school earlier this month.
In April, a six-year-old boy shot and wounded his teacher. In March, a former student went back to her school and killed three nine-year-olds as well as three adults in a shooting spree. In January, a teenager used a shotgun to kill a sixth grader at his school. Also in January, a Chicago man shot dead eight people whom he knew. And yet, 25 states allow residents to carry guns in public, open or concealed, without a permit.
America’s gun shootings are influenced by autocratic religious leanings, and God’s name is invoked to justify the right to carry arms around town. Whenever it fits the purpose, autocracy serves as a leaning wall for democracy.
Pope Francis, head of the worldwide Catholic Church, and Nasaruddin Umar, the grand imam of Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque had two weeks ago issued a joint declaration warning against the use of religion in conflict and violence.
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In geopolitics, the US is projecting its religious “cosmic good vs evil” worldview onto Russia. Very few Americans know that their country set a trap for the polar bear, using Ukraine as the bait to be eaten so long as the bear eventually gets killed. Russia has fallen into the trap, as its Ukraine invasion provides justification for the US to attempt destroying it.
With the end of Soviet communism in 1991, Russia sought peace with the West and asked for a pledge that the American-led military pact, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), would not stretch east. But since 1991, Nato recruited 14 additional members that were formerly part of Russia’s historical sphere of influence. Four of these nations are at Russia’s borders. In 2008, Nato agreed that Ukraine would become a member. Ukraine shares a long border with Russia.
Nato pushed to the edge of Russia, as the demise of the Soviet Union was seen as confirmation that God wanted Russia to break up, despite its reversion to Christianity – albeit its own national branch. In 1992, US Defence Secretary Richard Cheney said that Russia should be dismembered.
Merdeka-generation Malaysians will remember that in 1961 the US launched a small Bay of Pigs invasion against pro-Soviet Cuba, and in 1962 it threatened a full-scale invasion and occupation if Cuba did not remove a Russian base on the island. How we cheered for America.
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The US will never allow Canada, Mexico and any other nation to join a military alliance headed by Russia or China. Yet, the threat to its security that it would never tolerate, has been unleashed on Russia.
Diplomat and historian George F. Kennan said in 1998: “I think it is the beginning of a new Cold War. I think the Russians will react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it (Nato expansion) is a tragic mistake.”
What can Malaysia do? As chair of Asean next year, we can spearhead a demand that the US play a peacemaking role. The Ukraine War can end if the US guarantees that Nato will stop recruiting any new members in Eastern Europe.
At the same time, as a neutral peacemaker, it can secure a guarantee from Russia that it will never threaten Western Europe. Fight climate change and not fight each other. Focus or lose humanity’s biggest war.
The writer champions interfaith harmony.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
