WITHOUT wishing in any way to detract from his brilliantly mounted election campaign, Barack Obama’s overwhelming success in the race to the
White House says a lot less about this African-American, whose middle name is Hussein, and more about George W. Bush’s eight years of uninspired, mindless stewardship which has seen a great nation being treated by the whole world with contempt, and its commander-in-chief dismissed as an imbecilic figure of fun and ridicule.

It shows the degree of disgust and distrust of the Republican administration that the American voters were prepared to risk putting in charge of the nation’s destiny, even in the short term, an inexperienced junior senator. Senator Obama has won, not to put too fine a point on it, by default. He is gifted with words, and nothing could have been more messianic than his passionately persuasive message of hope for Americans through change. If he had not been elected to the presidency of the United States, I expect he could make a decent living as an excellent Shakespearean actor. Obama will find that delivering on the promises that rolled off his silvery tongue during the hustings will not be a piece of cake, especially when assuming the role of the world’s policeman, which the US has arrogated to itself since the end of World War 2. I expect Obama’s Middle East policies, particularly those relating to the Palestinian issue, will have already been decided by Israel and her many Washington proxies. He should, nevertheless, be reminded that America’s failed Israel/Palestine policies of the past will invariably come back to haunt him unless he recognises that it is only through fair and just policies that there will be peace in the Middle East. How he handles the Palestinian issue will decide whether we will have peace in the rest of the world.

TUNKU ABDUL AZIZ, Kuala Lumpur

Source: NST – November 11, 2008