COMMENT While mainstream opposition leaders generally seem to agree that the answer is “Yes, we should protest Donald Trump’s immigration ban on seven Muslim countries”, not everyone seems to believe so.

This was first highlighted in a report on a statement from DAP assemblyperson Chow Yu Hui, who said that DAP should not join any protest at the US embassy because this would smack of double standards.

This raised some debate in the comments section of the Malaysiakini article about his statement.

Based on these comments, and a general familiarity with readers/commentators over the years, my best guess is that among readers here, there are significant numbers who: a) Feel that Trump’s ban is unethical; and b) Support Trump’s ban.

Rationale for supporting the ban

Everyone is of course entitled to their opinion. Mine, for whatever it is worth, is as follows.

I think the differences in opinion over this ban tends to pivot on which of two potential starting points one uses to evaluate the ban.

I could be wrong, but I would guesstimate that those who support the ban are generally uncomfortable around/about Muslims, tend to feel that non-Malays are extremely maligned and discriminated against in Malaysia, and - before and after the existence of Pakatan Rakyat especially - tend to take a very dim view of PAS, and an even worse one of Umno.

Amidst that backdrop, it is perhaps easy to think that Trump (who is felt to be on their same ‘team’) is bravely putting these rascally Muslims in their place. Perhaps they see this ban as points scored in some imaginary war between Muslims and the rest of the world.

Rationale for opposing the ban

Those who oppose the ban, likely do so for ideological reasons. Perhaps people who take this view see the ban as a superpower bullying people from poorer, less powerful countries.

Perhaps they themselves are minority Malaysians, who believe that those representing a majority should not be allowed to suppress minorities - whether here, or in America.

Thus, the ban is opposed as a matter of principle: one where the idea that the powerful should be allowed to oppress the powerless is rejected, no matter what the skin colour or religious affiliations are on either side of that coin.

Trump harming Americans more than protecting them?

As is probably obvious, I am sympathetic to this view. Sadly, it feels like Trump’s actions are more likely to harm than to protect Americans.

I have long held the belief that if someone had serious enough intent to say, cause you bodily harm, or break into your house - almost no reasonable amount of protection over a sustained period of time will prevent this from happening.

There are simply too many vulnerabilities. Anyone with enough patience, dedication and intelligence is likely to be able to penetrate any practical defenses.

In much the same way, if someone wanted badly enough to hurt America through terrorism, almost no amount of isolationism and wall building is likely going to stop that. The question is, how much reason do you want to give people to want to hurt America?

Needless to say, the actual impact of terrorism on Americans, especially within America, is generally overstated. There are many, many more Americans that die at the hands of white Americans (especially police perhaps?), than there are Americans who die at the hands of truly radical Islamic terrorists - to say nothing of preventable road accidents, disease, and so on.

Recently, this trend on the part of Trump staffers was most painfully highlighted when top adviser Kellyanne Conway cited what was literally a fake terrorist attack, which in fact never happened.

The sad relationship between Trump supporters and, well, facts, continue to cause grave concern.

Oppression across religious lines

Coming back to the matter at hand, I don’t think it’s going too far to say that there are many instances of discrimination against minorities in Malaysia. Many believe the perpetrators of this discrimination to be Muslims.

Again, there are two ways to react to this. Supporting an unjust backlash against Muslims in other parts of the world - who truly have done nothing at all to harm us - is bigoted, petty and immature to say the least.

Instead, those who feel oppressed here in Malaysia should recognise when others around the world are being similarly oppressed, and look beyond skin or creed.

Two wrongs don’t make a right

Some have argued that we in Malaysia have no right to protest this immigration ban, since we, too, impose similar bans - for example, against Israelis (including athletes), and against opposition members in Sarawak.

This view holds that it is thus hypocritical of us to protest Trump’s ban, while not protesting our own immigration bans.

To this I say two wrongs do not make a right.

Just because we have deaths in custody in Malaysia, does that mean we cannot protest deaths in custody overseas?

Also, the argument that we should not protest one injustice because are not protesting another seems rather weak.

Is it hypocritical then, if say I failed to attend a protest for one death in custody last week, but want to attend a protest for a different death in custody next week?

Are the only options for the ethical protester then to attend every single protest for every single injustice, else be branded a hypocrite?

The impracticality of this line of reasoning seems obvious.

Good on Lee

I don’t think we need to police what people choose to protest and what they don’t.

We are all humans of limited time and resources, and some people feel more strongly about one issue, while others about other issues. Their right to protest as they see fit should be respected.

So, my congratulations to all those today from Pakatan Harapan, Bersatu, and whoever else attended, for sending a memorandum of protest regarding the immigration ban to the US Embassy.

That the memorandum was handed over by another DAP assemblyperson, Howard Lee, will probably go further in convincing others that DAP fights for all Malaysians, than bringing ‘large’ Malay individuals who have always appealed more to urban non-Malays than rural Malays into the party (though of course, there is nothing wrong with that either).

NATHANIEL TAN always dreaded going through immigration.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.