Obama writes new chapter in US history

WE HEARTILY congratulate Democrat Barack Obama for his historic and spectacular victory over Republican John McCain in the US presidential elections. The historic nature of Obama’s election as the 44th president of the United States cannot be overstressed. In August, he had become the first African-American to be nominated for the presidency by a major party and yesterday, he became the first African-American to become the president-elect, 44 years after the signing of the Civil Rights Act and 40 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jnr. On January 20, 2009, he will be sworn-in as the first black man to occupy the White House.
In the year Barack Obama was born, the United States was a country segregated by race. Slavery may have been abolished a hundred years prior, but African-Americans were still considered lesser beings and treated as second-class citizens, if that; they were made to go to different schools than whites and could sit only at the back of buses and trains in order to make space for white people in the front. That was the America into which Barack Obama was born. Forty-seven years on, racial undercurrents still remain in the US, palpable in some areas more than others; however, for Obama today to stand on the verge of entering the highest office in the land on the back of a landslide victory over a white opponent is not only a phenomenal achievement but will, at least in part, we hope, exorcise the spectre of America’s racist past that continues to haunt the nation.
There is something for us to learn from Obama’s election as America’s first black president. While Obama’s own political rise may have been meteoric, it should not be forgotten that it took a very long time for blacks in America to establish their political and democratic rights as equal citizens, and even longer for them to see one of their own elected as the country’s chief executive. Moreover, the positive change that has happened in America with regard to the African-American population in particular and minority communities in general has been achieved gradually through the political process, whether it is the 13th amendment to the US constitution that abolished slavery in 1865, the signing of the Civil Rights Act ending racial discrimination in 1964 or Obama’s election to the nation’s top office in 2008. Nothing was achieved through quick-fix measures, suspension of rights, coercion or violence. Hence, we should realise that, just like in America, the positive changes that we wish for in the nature of politics in our country will only occur with time if we try to bring them about through the political process, not by circumventing it.
Today, just like most of the rest of the world, we cannot help but feel optimistic as Bush’s America gives way to Obama’s America. The US remains the only country that is relevant and influential in every part of the world, and hence, the election of an American president affects the peace, harmony and well-being of all the people in the world. We have much expectation from a President Obama and would like to see him take a much more nuanced and pragmatic approach to economic and foreign policy, especially after eight years of living with the obtuse and dogmatic George W Bush. Hence, as we wish Obama well, we do so with a caveat. The entire world now looks upon him to give a new direction to American leadership, which he himself has promised over and over again during the course of his campaign. We hope he doesn’t fail in his endeavour.