Ragoonath: Lessons for Trinidad and Tobago in Trump shooting

POLITICAL scientist Dr Bishnu Ragoonath said the shooting of former US president Donald Trump showed the value of TT's Council for Responsible Political Behaviour in seeking to have politicians tone down their rhetoric.

Newsday sought his views on July 15 after the attempted assassination of Trump on July 13 at a political rally in Pennsylvania by a 20-year-old using a semi-automatic AR15 rifle, where two other people were wounded and one killed. In TT both the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar roundly condemned the shooting.

Ragoonath said his focus was on possible repercussions in TT and how to allay fears of such.

"I go back to the code of conduct we have where we try to get political leaders to temper their speech and so on."

"Basically, what we have seen happen in the US following the shooting is both Trump and Biden have said they should now temper their speech and try to prevent any negative repercussions coming out of what they say. I think that is one of the critical concerns they had have across there."

Ragoonath said political parties in the US have ideological differences which parties in TT do not have but the latter have racial differences.

"When politicians go out there and say things which could infuse tensions, we need to make sure we don't have those sort of things occurring in TT.

"Way back in 2014, because of where we were going and how the politics was evolving in TT, that became a critical fear for us. That us why we developed that code of ethical political conduct, because we saw it 'going down that road' and we don't want to go down that road."

Ragoonath said last year the Prime Minister and others did not take kindly to the council telling them they were breaching the code.

"We were not telling them they were breaching the code for the sake of telling them, but we were trying to protect our society."

Recalling the assassinations of Presidents Kennedy and Lincoln, he said it was not far-fetched for Americans to talk about assassination attempts.

"Our concern however is do we have copycats in our society who might say that is something we could copy."

He noted the attack on Trump had occurred even despite their tight Secret Service security, which usually takes precautionary steps that might not be done in TT.

"That is the frightening part as we go forward. We have some people in TT – and now that it seems the gun is a dime a dozen and people have access to guns in TT clearly from what we have seen from all the murders over the weekend – and we don't know which one of them will take it up and attack anybody. That's the real concern."

Newsday said TT's saving graces might be a lack of sharp ideological divisiveness, marksman culture or demonised figures like Trump.

Ragoonath said, "We don't have that level of ideological fundamentalism." He said the attacker was a registered Republican. Ragoonath said TT has a lot of trigger-happy individuals who would shoot wildly not knowing where their bullets would end up.

"As we go forward I am hoping our politicians treat with this issue as carefully as they can. Making statements could lead to other things."

By way of example, he said Pastor Ian Brown had recently said Christians were purportedly "under attack" in the Strategic Services Agency (SSA.)

He said a simple statement like that might be believed by some people who might then ask how to deal with purported state of affairs.

"Those are the kinds of concerns I would have and even how the media puts it across."

Newsday asked how the assassination attempt could affect the US presidential election. He said, "It goes both ways."

Firstly, he said some Republicans have blamed the Democrats for allegedly indirectly influencing the event (by demonising Trump.) He hoped that at the Republican Convention on July 15 or 16 Trump would try to calm down the issue and cool down how own followers, to stop blaming the Democrats.

Saying Republican voices blamed the Democrats for portraying Trump as a hate-figure, he said it was significant the shooter was a Republic not a Democrat.

"Some people in TT are saying, I have heard it said, 'Trump win the election already' because of the sympathy vote for him.

"There is another angle: Did Trump set this thing up?" He said some have asked why the Secret Service was not on the building housing the shooter. "So all these conspiracy theories are there floating. Whether it will benefit Trump or the Democrats we really have to wait and see how it plays out in the next few days. We'll have to see how Trump carries himself. "

Ragoonath said the day after the shooting someone was already selling jerseys of a bloodied Trump pumping his fist in the air.

"It is a campaign and they are going to 'sell' it. The Republicans are going to try to get as much mileage out of this thing as possible."

Newsday said in contrast to President Biden calling Vice President Kamala Harris "Putin", Trump was vigorously pumping his fist to portray strength.

Ragoonath said, "Exactly. His pumping the fist reminded me of 1990, when Robinson said 'Attack with full force.' (referring to then prime minister the late Arthur NR Robinson's defiance of the Jamaat al Muslimeen while a hostage in the Red House during the attempted coup.)

"That is what Trump was doing it, by pumping the fist. He was saying 'As bloodied as I am I am not giving up. I am going to fight to the end. I am not sure Mr Biden might be able to manage that kind of action. In fact a medical doctor who is a Democrat said that Biden, when he is walking – based on his lack of hand movement – is in an advanced stage of Parkinson's Disease. If he is in an advanced stage of Parkinson's Disease, can he pump his fist the way Trump can?"