Sex Vs. Race? Both are against Obama

Change, is that really what Americans want?

My opinion
American do not want to admit it but the Democrats primary in New Hampshire disclosed the underlying truth; that the country is feeling the chill in the spine that a colored person might run the White House after all. Obama came very close to it and almost knock off Clinton in the all important New Hampshire primary that would gives him and his campaign the momentum to finish off the Democrats' race in the Super Tuesday to be held on February 5th.

Although i did not follow the primaries in the US very closely, I did glance through the results and forecasts and the issues that were discussed by the front runners of the Democrats in the past days.

0n the 5th of February, after I finished our regular weekend go-around together with Wong Ho Leng (DAP Sarawak Chairman) and other comrades, we went for a quick bite at around 7:30 pm and as usual we discussed the political issues. Our subject of course touched on the US primaries as Obama win in Iowa has fascinated and surprised many as earlier polls all put Clinton double-digit lead over the African-American going into Iowa.

Ho Leng touched on the miracles and showing of the only Black candidate in the US primary race. At which time the results of the Iowa’s caucuses was 37.6% for Obama while Hillary only took the third place with 29.7% of the votes. But pollsters forecasted another Osama’s victory in New Hampshire as the polls showed Obama has almost a double digit lead over Clinton while Edward ran second.

Americans fear
But in New Hampshire,ordinary American and not only Democrats can cast their ballots and that would be more indicative than the Iowa’s caucus. Both the Obama and the Clinton camp needs to win the New Hampshire primary which would almost decide the winner of the Democrats’. If Clinton is to lose the New Hampshire, she would have almost bowed out but a win for her would leave the race open again. The odds are against Clinton and the momentum is in favors of a first African-American running for the White House.

However, I told ho Leng that I would put my money with the Clinton because of the view above-mentioned. That the American Presidency is an institution and not a person and that only the elites would decide who runs it and not public opinion. The powerful Unions, the rich defense contractors, lobbyists, and the religious organizations and of course the powerful Jewish community would decide the institution. But the most important is the conservatives and the White Folks would never allow their self-conscious and unconscious mind to allow the colored-folk to surpass them in politics, that the colored-folks could only excel in sports and entertainments in the land of the free.

From the Malaysians’ perspective
Obama win would bring a real change that we would to see as Malaysian are facing the increased conflicts and rising tension among the ethnic groups in recent years. The Hindraf rally brought to light the despair of the Indian community while the Chinese community is also anger by the BN’s policies such as the National Economy Policy (NEP), the quota systems in the education and economy policies and the rising Malays’ extremists within the Umno.

The Umno deputy President and the deputy Prime minister of Malaysia, Najib, had earlier said that “as long as there is Umno, there will be NEP...” This brought to light the BN’s intention of using the Malays Agendas to secure political dominance no matter how the other ethnic groups feel and no matter how they appeal to the government for equal opportunity and equal access to the country’s resources.

When will Malaysian see a change? In this multi racial and cultural country, Malaysian will only succeed through an All Malaysian Agenda instead of a restrictive and narrowly defined Ethnic-based Agenda. Only through political transformation and democratic means would this country continue to prosper into the next 50 years. We will need a bi-patrician system so that the people can be guaranteed that no one ethnic group would be left off and being marginalized to the extent that riots and hatred and racial polarization continue be the stumbling blocks to national development.

My stand
I write this article without any disrespect to all the candidates of either the Republican or the Democrats but to bring to light the need for change not only in the US as being proclaimed by both the Obama and Clinton campaign and to high light the political polarization within Malaysia after 50 years of the BN rule.

A country’s strength is drawn from its peoples and the change can only by brought by the peoples and not the political leaders. Whether there is a real and true change in America or Malaysia will in the end be decided by the peoples of both the countries. We will see what the peoples in both the country are made of in the coming months.

David Wong
13-01-2008