ASEAN HEADLINES: America shaken to the core

The storming of the US Congress left America’s image as a beacon of democracy severely tarnished Thursday, with allies unable to hide their shock and authoritarian regimes gleefully exploiting the unrest.

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In normal times, a state-backed gang rampaging through a legislature to demand a lost election be nullified would have US diplomats marching to their laptops to draft a statement of condemnation.But after the deadly violence in Washington on Wednesday, it was the turn of officials in capitals from Bogota to New Delhi to call for calm.In a string of statements, leaders could barely contain their shock at seeing Donald Trump’s supporters briefly — but quite easily — overrun the crucible of US democracy and challenge the peaceful transfer of power.“Where were the police and the Senate bodyguards…?”

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Czech foreign minister Tomas Petricek asked aloud, as the world watched Trump supporters cart off podiums, ransack offices or strut around Congress in a horned helmet unmolested.Through slavery and segregation, Civil War and Cold War, US presidents have often hailed their democracy as exceptional, what Ronald Reagan called the “shining city on the hill.”That image has been questioned many times before, but after four norm-shattering years of Trump, it took just a few hours of mob rule to make America look pretty ordinary, and as fragile as anywhere else.

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Former president George W. Bush went as far as to compare the situation to a “banana republic,” while calling out fellow Republicans for fueling the “insurrection.”Australia warned its citizens in the United States to take care given the “ongoing potential for violence.”

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