The 2016 United States Presidential election was an event that took the world by surprise. The election of President-Elect Trump now brings the United States into some truly uncharted waters. This entire election has essentially been a bloodbath, with both sides firing shots at each other in a cheap ploy to garner more support. I looked at this entire election with great interest for I am an international student from Singapore who is pursuing my higher education in the United States. The outcome of this election would determine the type of America I would be living in for the rest of my higher education. The outcome was clearly not what I was expecting, but you have to respect the outcome of a democratic election.
When the campaigns were first announced, I was still serving my mandatory Military Service in Singapore as a member of the Police Force. I didn’t think much of it as I was still focused on the job, which was to serve my country. However, once my service finished in December of 2015 and I started to fill the eight-month gap between finishing and starting college, I focused much more on the election. In the preliminary stages when I saw the candidates, I presumed it would be Jeb Bush vs whoever would be the democratic nominee. It is something that a fair number of my friends back home agreed with. At that time, I had not done much reading into either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. The months leading up to my departure for Skidmore left me with some worry.
The months leading up to my eventual departure to Skidmore college were admittedly a little nerve wracking. I not only had to contend with the possibility of an election going awry (which it did) but also the fact I was moving to a country that was over ten thousand miles away from home. The election did give me a chance to look further into American politics. I was particularly fascinated by the electoral college and how unnecessarily complex it is. I still cannot to this very day fathom how it fully works. I do understand that it is to somewhat even out the voting powers across all fifty states. It is a vast contrast to how the voting system works in Singapore.
The system in Singapore is significantly more simple. The country is divided up into different areas and people vote for specific MPs who represent different parties. Then it is the party’s Secretary-General that gets elected as Prime Minister of the country. While some people may criticize the Singapore system, it does have its merit. The system has taken into account the people’s opinion and matters into consideration. The candidate with the popular vote does get the seat, unlike the American system. It is all very complicated and it perplexes me. Why does it need to be so complicated? Nations around the world use different systems that have worked perfectly.
When it comes to the results of this election on the international stage, it is quite frightening. The United States has a large amount of influence overseas, particularly as an active proponent of free trade and free movement of services. If we are to envision what is to happen over the next four years based on the various statements made by candidate Trump, the global economy is going into a very uncertain and unpredictable phase. Trump appealed to the popular vote by making a number of promises, primarily that of bringing jobs back, deporting illegal immigrants etc. These are all nice to hear, but if you look closely the actual numbers speak otherwise. Jobs that have moved overseas are in semi-skilled and unskilled operations which are fundamentally much more expensive to retain in the United States. Not all illegal immigrants are dangerous criminals as has been made out- they are playing an important role in the economy of America and sending them back will suddenly create problems in those sectors where these immigrants work, as local people no longer do these jobs or are not interested.
During the last election in Singapore, one of the major points of divergence between the general population and the leadership was the liberal immigration policy that Singapore had adopted to counter a slowing population growth. The Ruling party fared very badly in that election compared to previous elections. They then tightened immigration and made it expensive for Companies to hire foreign workers. The knock-on effect was felt intensely by the services and construction sector which used to have a lot of foreigners. The Singapore government balanced this by several measures, like training and retraining people whose jobs were at threat due to globalization, and increased automation in areas which previously depended on unskilled workers.
These points are relevant to Singapore and may not be true of the United States, but the lesson to be learned is the opposite of what nationalists in many countries, America included, are clamoring for. Increased protectionism leads to lower standards and does not benefit anyone in the end. America has robust systems in place and has been through more challenging times; while we are all uncomfortable facing the unknown, we should be aware that President Trump may be different from Candidate Trump, allowing us to avoid a global meltdown. Generally, what I feel at this moment is what most students here at Skidmore feel. That is simply the fear of the unknown. We have truly entered some uncharted territory and we don’t know what will happen. While it might seem there isn’t much we can do, in actuality there is a number of things we can do. What we can do is support and help the people who need it.
