What the world expects from Obama
Sudheendra Kulkarni
Posted: Nov 09, 2008 at 0144 hrs IST
Barack Obama’s victory in the US presidential election has been greeted with extraordinary excitement and elation in the global media, including in the Indian media. It is not often that the outcome of an election in a foreign country gets covered in the Indian press with eight-column banner headlines. But America is special. And the electoral battle for the White House this year was made more special by the candidature of Obama, his high-spirited campaign, his incredible win over Hillary Clinton for the nomination of the Democratic Party, and, finally, his decisive triumph over John McCain on November 4.
One can understand why the Americans are celebrating. But why is the world so elated? The reason is simple. Obama’s victory is not only his own, not only of change-hungry Americans, but also of democracy and certain universal human values around the world. There are many things the world dislikes about America—its arrogance, its sheer power and its lack of wisdom about how to use its power. But there is also one thing the world likes about America: its democracy. If “change has come to America”, as Obama has so evocatively affirmed, it is because of the power of democracy, the power of an ordinary citizen’s ballot, the power of peaceful expression of a nation’s collective desire. It is not an ordinary feat for a 47-year-old first-time Senator to win the presidency of the most powerful nation on earth. America’s democracy has made it possible. Many surviving dictatorships and despotic regimes in the world must be quaking at the thought of the effect this peaceful change could have on their own democracy-loving people.
But democracy is a lesser reason for the world’s interest in Obama’s victory. After all, the US elects its president every four years in the same manner. Hence, there is, outwardly, nothing new about the latest election. The greater reasons are two, one of which has become visible and the other is yet to become so. What is visible is that the United States has elected its first black president—232 years after Thomas Jefferson, the principal architect of America’s independence, famously declared that “all men are created equal and independent”, 143 years after America abolished slavery with Abraham Lincoln saying, “Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and under a just God, cannot long retain it,” and 46 years after Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the historic “I Have a Dream...” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
Slavery ended, but racial discrimination continued to remain the birthmark of America. Obama’s victory signals the hope that this ugly birthmark could finally get erased. A substantial reason for the rest of the world’s joy at Obama’s victory is that it represents the triumph of a universal ideal—equality of all human beings irrespective of the colour of their skin or, for that matter, their caste, religion, language or economic status.
The world is applauding Obama’s victory for another reason, but here the change is still in the realm of expectation and not fact. Like Americans, much of the world was also angry over the eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency. Bush was a bully, and the world does not like bullies who believe in the principle of “might is right”. Hence, the dislike for Bush had bred an intense desire for change. The world community saw the symbol of change in Obama. His youthful personality and powerful oratory exuded certain genuineness, a hope that his presidency could mark a clean break from the past.
But will Obama fulfill the world’s expectations? Will he begin the process to ensure an end to America’s militarism, which has become its guiding ideology? Let’s remember that USA is the only country which, since World War II, has almost always been at war with some country or the other across the globe. Some of the wars it has waged have been justified on the basis of pure lies, such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Similarly, we in India should be wary of America’s seemingly endless war in Afghanistan. It has destabilised South Asia like nothing else has. We must not support it in the name of our own “War on Terror”. Just spare a thought for the hundreds of innocent civilians who have been bombed to death by Americans in Afghanistan and in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Therefore, Obama’s pre-poll talk of attacking Pakistan should be a matter of concern, especially given that the Bush administration in its closing months executed much of Obama’s prescriptions.
Yes, Pakistan must be prevented from falling into the hands of jihadis. But this task must be cooperatively undertaken by the international community, especially by affected regional actors such as Russia, Iran, India and China and not unilaterally by the US army. Indeed, the biggest test of whether Obama represents real change for the international community is whether he moves his country away from the Superpower mentality, wisely recognising the sober realities of what Fareed Zakaria, the famous Indian-American columnist, calls the “Post-American World”. For too long, America’s ruling class has lorded over the world. It has overstretched its actual strength. Its economy is groaning under a mountain of debt, both domestic and foreign.
Even though America’s Roman Moment might be over for good, in its dying years the American Empire’s ways and means of dealing with its own domestic crisis have convulsed the rest of the global economic system into turmoil. It is therefore natural for us to eagerly await the reconstruction process that Obama most certainly would have to begin next January, and which, if conceived in a sincere spirit, would inevitably involve the retrenching of US military-political commitments across the globe. The world expects to know whether Obama has a plan and commitment to fundamentally reform America’s economy, to drastically reduce the rich-poor divide in his own country, and also to help begin the process of peaceful restructuring of the World Economic Order in favour of the poor in every corner of the globe.
Obama will be hailed as a great leader only if he puts substance into the stirring Poetry of Change that marked his campaign. As one of his millions of admirers in India, I have this to say to the president-elect: “Hearty congratulations and best wishes. You have made the promise of Change come to America. But history will judge you by whether you can make positive Change come to the Rest of the World.”
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