Around the Globe, Schwarzenegger Gets a 'Thumbs Down'
By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com Staff
Friday, August 15, 2003; 1:40 PM
URL:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59271-2003Aug14.html
The latest Arnold Schwarzenegger show isn't getting great reviews in the international online media. To some journalists around the world, the emergence of the action hero as a political contender is worrisome.
In the Philippines, the California recall spectacle has the whiff of rerun. In 1998, a popular movie star, Joseph Estrada, was elected president. Like Schwarzenegger, Estrada was an action hero on the big screen with a reputation for womanizing and a big following outside the political class. He was "recalled" by a military coup in December 2000. Now he's in jail awaiting trial on corruption charges.
"The political comedy and theatrics in California surely remind Filipinos there of the frivolous politics back home, where elections have become a turf of movie stars, media celebrities and basketball cagers," writes Mar-Vic Cagurangan, an editor for ABS-CBN Today, an online news site run jointly by a Manila TV station and newspaper.
Cagurangan dubs the recall spectacle, "Cali-filipinization" and he says it's a sign of a dysfunctional democracy.
"We Filipinos have long discovered the nincompoopery of our politicians and the uselessness of our government. But just the same, we vote during elections, we pay our taxes (we can't evade it anyway), and continue patronizing our government for its sole redeeming value -- entertainment. We watch our politicians dance, sing, eat fire and make fools of themselves. We vote for them. Alas, we make fools of ourselves.
In Saudi Arabia, the editors of Arab News see Schwarzenegger as the son of Ronald Reagan.
"Reagan's success heralded the arrival of presentation as the prime consideration for successful politics. In a sound-bite media age, political savvy by itself is no longer enough. A high degree of stage management is necessary and who is better qualified to walk into the limelight and deliver the right lines on cue than a professional actor?"
Unlike some overseas commentators, the Arab News editors noted that Schwarzenegger, because he is not a native U.S. citizen, cannot be elected president.
"That is not to say, however, that from a power-base in California, he could not exert considerable influence on the Washington establishment. It will very much depend on whether the same powerful behind-the-scenes forces in the Republican Party, which once backed Ronald Reagan, see any point in throwing their weight behind Schwarzenegger. Yet for an America that seems to be finding it increasingly hard to separate reality from Hollywood's fictions, it must be hoped that Schwarzenegger is given the thumbs down by California voters and is sent back to his day job in the film studios."
In Israel, columnist Larry Derfner, writing in the Jerusalem Post, had much the same thought.
Schwarzenegger's "debut as the instant favorite in the race for governor of California only confirms the world's opinion of Americans," he wrote. "They like violence, power, revenge, riches, success and fame, and they don't know the difference between real life and fantasy, between real people and characters in an action movie."
"As for their politics, it amounts to 'looking out for number one.' They don't have a society and don't want one. The world outside America's borders is irrelevant to them except as a threat or a target. "
But Derfner says the real precedent for Schwarzenegger is George W. Bush.
"Bush also gets over on his image as a terminator, a blaster of bad guys, a man with a swagger, an action hero who delivers killer one-liners ('Bring 'em on!'). What are his politics? We're good, they're evil. Taxes are evil. Now did you get all that, or do you need some help?"
"From George W. Bush, then, it's just a half-step down to Arnold Schwarzenegger."
For the Hollywood-centric, the Singapore Straits Times points out that India also has a tradition of celebrity politicians.
In the 1970s and 1980s, two Bollywood stars M.G. Ramachandran and N.T. Rama Rao parlayed acting careers into political success. Both were elected chief minister, the Indian equivalent of a state governor. Less successful was Amitahb Bachchan who was elected to the Indian parliament. When he was implicated in an arms dealing scandal, he quit politics and returned to acting. In a recent BBC poll, Bachchan was named Actor of the Millennium, ahead of Sir Laurence Olivier and Charley Chaplin.
For columnist Jeffrey Simpson of the Toronto Globe and Mail "California represents populism gone wrong."
He attributes Schwarzenegger's popularity to the state's broken political system.
Simpson notes that progressive politics in California emerged in the early 20th century as a way of controlling the "handful of barons owned the railroads, mines, timber and ranches." Measures enabling citizen-sponsored referenda, requiring a two-thirds legislative majority for budgets and taxes, and allowing the recall of officeholders were intended to reign in special interests.
"Populism, however, led to the politics of millionaires and interest groups, including powerful trade unions," he writes. "The 'people,' in other words, became synonymous with individuals, and groups with the money and organizational clout to use these 'progressive' political devices for their own purposes ...
"The result in recent years has been to cripple effective government, proper public finance and sound public policy. Compromise and moderation became dirty words, or at least virtues that could not compete with mobilized special interests."
"The appeal of the outsider in such a system is considerable - the allure of someone who can rise above the legislature, the vested interests and break gridlock. "
Outside of the United States, there seems to be some doubt that the action hero can live up to the role.
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