Open letter to us President Donald Trump
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 10:46:33 +0000
By Donald Chanda
From the congress bill on the health care system in the US, to the strikes on Syria and the telephone discussion with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping over global issues with North Korea being one of them, it is clear there is a lot to do on your desk.
In my earlier writing to you, Mr. President, I made mention of the fact that do not remove the health care system without consulting your predecessor, President Obama because there is a very good reason as to why he instituted it.
In your campaigns, you promised to change or drop it altogether. When the whole world is moving to better systems of Governance and more just, fair society, the health care system stands at the core of a just society for all when the governance system accords every individual access to health.
Access to affordable, available and acceptable food plus quality education for all make the complementary duties and responsibilities of every government that makes good governance as its primary task.
I am happy that the American people speaking through the congress have addressed the health care system fairly and correctly.
Mr. President, I wish to further note that in my earlier letter headed, “Trump Actions” for a better world, I had advised that the conflict in Syria requires a negotiated settlement.
I am not surprised that when the US reacted with military strikes on Syria, the reactions from the rest of the world have not welcomed the US action. The US strike, as you put it was to warn the aggressors who used chemical weapons that you were going to protect the helpless women and children who are victims of the war.
The war itself is embedded in some injustices ad undemocratic practices, beliefs and traditions in that part of the world. These injustices and undemocratic practices need political settlement as society and communities in that part of the world move to more open democratic global systems of Governance.
This, I advised is where the US president, using the historically well-established American democracy should come in and bring the warring factions to a negotiation table. At that negotiating table the interests of all should share in the duties and responsibilities of putting into national policies and actions the requirements of the new nation on which they agree. This way the nation will move forward, rather than putting war on warring factions.
Mr. President, when you struke Syria, yes the message you sent was, you would not tolerate inhuman barbaric actions. You struck a heavier blow with the hope that the aggressors will fear and stop. I hope they will. My advice however, is based on simple mathematics, “war plus war equals more war, or two or three wars”. In the Syrian case it actually turns into a multiplicity of wars because there are several wars going on based on several interest groups. There are equally several reactions to the American strike on Syria.
As you may have already seen Mr. President, Russia’s reaction was also different, so was the reaction from Italy. I suspect by now you have stated and unstated reactions from Syria itself, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, Iraqi, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel. At this point, I would like to repeat the advice I made on Syria that is, call for a negotiated settlement.
Still going by my earlier advice, I did mention that the US threat to North Korea to stop its nuclear programme was coded in such a way that it could lead to war. I am happy that you and your Chinese counterpart have put the issue of the Korean peninsula, on your agenda for future discussions. My view is that whatever happens between now and the time you meet will be addressed with statements and not missiles. Even when you meet as global leaders, you will be leading the two Koreas towards a peaceful re-union as one people. The world, especially we Africans have not forgotten that Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown when he was away trying to negotiate for peace on the Korean Peninsula. The common denominator should be establishing a new open democratic society with human rights for all, justice for all and equal opportunities for all Koreans. The two Koreas should then adjust to establishing the new society with equal duties and responsibilities. Today’s Germany stands as an example that this can be done. It was in 1978, after the fall of the Berlin wall that East and West Germany united into one.
Mr. President, I know that between you and your Chinese counterpart, there is more between your nations than just the Korean peninsula. There is the issue of South China Sea. The issue of South China Sea is bound to create a more detailed, probably even acrimonious discussion because of the natural resource richness of the area in addition to territorial historical boundaries. My trust and hope is that this issue should be guided by peaceful negotiations as each nation points to its interests in both territorial and international waters.
On 10th February 2007 at Springfield, Illinois Barak Obama had this to say, “We all made this journey for a reason.
It’s humbling, but in my heart, I know you didn’t come here just for me, you came here because you believe in what this country can be. In the face of war., you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope.
In the face of politics that has shut you out, that’s told you to settle, that’s divided us for too long, you believe we can be one people, reaching for what’s possible, building that perfect union…… but all this cannot pass until we bring an end to this war in Iraqi. Most of you know I opposed this war from the start. I thought it was a tragic mistake.
Today, we grieve for the families who have lost loved ones, the hearts that have been broken and the young lives that could have been. America, it’s time to start bringing our troops home. It’s time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else’s civil war.
That’s why I have a plan that will bring our combat troops home by March of 2008. Letting the Iraqis know that we will not be there forever, it is our last, best hope to pressure the Sunni and Shai to come to the table and find peace.”
Using this wisdom from your predecessor Mr. President, no amount of American strikes and bombardments can resolve the political disagreements in Syria. The solution lies in bringing all the parties and interest groups to the table and finding peace. With peace, they will create a new nation, assume new duties and responsibilities in the governance of their new nation.
Mr. President, making peace wherever you are is a rewarding gift to humanity. For a long time, Angola was engulfed in a civil war. Today, there is peace and a new government with shared responsibilities among those who were once combatants. Various leaders contributed to bringing peace to Angola by calling on others to stop barbaric acts and weapons of war. Princess Diana of Wales in 1997 had this to say. “I must begin by saying how warmly I welcome this conference on landmines convened by the Mines Advisory Group and the Landmines Survivors Network. It is so welcome because the world is too little aware of the waste of life, limb and land which anti-personnel landmines are causing among some of the poorest people on earth. Indeed, until my journey to Angola early this year…. I was largely unaware of it too.
For the mine is a stealthy killer. Long after conflict is ended, its innocent victims die or are wounded singly, in countries of which we hear little. Their lonely fate is never reported. The world, with its many other preoccupations remains largely unmoved by a death roll of something like 800 people every month-many of them women and childrenSome people chose to interpret my visit as a political statement. But it was not. I am not a political figure.
As I said at the time, and I’d like to reiterate now, my interests are humanitarian.
That is why I felt drawn to this human tragedy. This is why I wanted to play down my part in working towards a world-wide ban on these weapons. During my days in Angola, I saw at first hand three aspects of this scourge in the hospitals of Luanda, the capital and Huambo, the scene of bitter fighting not long ago.
I visited some of the mine victims who had survived and saw their injuries. I am not going to describe them because in my experience, it turns too many people away from the subject. Suffice to say that when you look at the mangled bodies, some of them children, caught by these mines, you marvel at their survival. What is so cruel about these injuries is that they were almost invariably suffered where medical resources are scarce
In Angola, one in every 334 members of the population is an amputee. Angola has the highest rate of amputees in the world. How can countries which manufacture and trade in these weapons square their conscience with such human devastation?
Angola is full of refugees returning after a long war. They present another aspect of this tragedy…… or he finds mines on what was his land and attempts to clear them….These mines inflict most of their causalities on people who are trying to meet the elementary needs of life. They strike the wife or the grandmother gathering firewood for cooking-they ambush the child sent to collect water for the family….
Even if the world decided tomorrow to ban these weapons, this terrible legacy of mines already in the earth would continue to plague the poor nations of the globe. “The evil that men do lives after them”. And so, it seems to me, there rests a certain obligation upon the rest of us”.
Mr. President, I would not like to recount American involvement in Angola, but would like to end my letter with the words of the late Princess Diana that there rests a certain obligation upon the rest of us. To me, that is, to make PEACE EVERYWHERE.
Donald Chanda -Lecturer,
University of Zambia,
P.O.Box 32379, Lusaka
Tell: 0979-771803
Email: chakolongana@gmail.com
(RTD)
