Obama - the model for minorities in majority communities

The Presidential election of 2008 was a drama of epic proportions with so much of anxiety and hope hanging in the balance just not for America but the world over. In due course, there is a likelihood of this psephological victory being raised as the symbolic starting point of the 21st and not anyone of the eight years that went before.

The drama was heightened by the race factor. Though most commentators downplayed the race factor it was always there hanging loosely in the background. From time to time the issue of the "Bradley Effect" - Tom Bradley, an Afro-American, who ran for governor in Los Angeles in `1982 won on pre-polls but lost marginally after the white backlash inside the polling booth - did come up. In the end the London Telegraph reported that at the final count President-Elect Obama attracted 43 per cent of the white vote, with 55 per cent backing John McCain.

He was the Lakshman Kadirgamar of America. There is, no doubt, that if Prabhakaran spared him he would have been Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister. His suave, polished, cosmopolitan, broad outlook without partisan agendas had endeared him to all communities - except to the die hard Tamil separatists.

However, the Telegraph added: "Mr. Obama may not have won over the majority of white voters but he still managed a larger slice of the white vote than any of his recent predecessors, including Bill Clinton."

Ultimately his victory was due to the "grand coalition" of minority groups he put together. "Mr Obama," said the Telegraph, "still achieved an overwhelming victory because he attracted 95 per cent of the black vote and two thirds of Hispanic and Asian voters."

On balance, it can be argued that he won on the white base (43%) with the minorities chipping in with the remainder. The whites still constitute the major voting bloc though it is forecast that by 2042 the whites will be in a minority. Of the whopping 52% popular vote won by Obama only 9% came from the minorities. So the solid bloc of white voters, though less than that of his rival, contributed substantially to his victory.

Without it he would have definitely lost even with the economy playing a decisive role in the outcome of the election.

The constant challenge faced by Obama, amidst all the side irritants in the election, was the need to prove that he was "the great white hope" that America needs at this time of grave crisis with two wars, increasing unemployment, economy going down the drain, banks refusing to give loans, a housing market in shambles etc., etc. He was fighting against a decorated war hero in Vietnam. He was almost a non-entity just two years ago compared to the establishment figure of McCain. At the centre of it all was the critical issue of his identity, character and capability.

So how did he make it to the top? The answer is not going to be palatable to many. He won not because he was black but because he was whiter than the whites. Each step of the way he moved away from his black and radical past, from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his mentor and pastor for decades who married him and baptised his children, to the fire-breathing Farrakhan claiming a separate state for the blacks. He was ensconced comfortably in the white man's religion. He spoke their language better than most Americans - at least better than the President-extinct, George Bush. He espoused America values. Like the white leaders he ended his speeches with "God Bless America" (not "God damn America", as proclaimed by his pastor Rev. Wright). Here he was invoking the God of the white Americans and not the God of Muslims, Hindus or any other theistic cult.

Divided America was sorely in need of a healing process. He provided the hope for it. He put together the "grand coalition" for multi-cultural co-existence without racial-religious barriers. His family background reads as if they are drawn from the League of Nations. For instance, his half-sister Maya Kassandra Soetoro-Ng, an Indonesian-American, is a Buddhist. Her father, Lolo Soetoro, who married the mother, Anne Dunham, is an Indonesian (Muslim) businessman. With this multi-cultural, multi-religious background it was natural for him not to harp on the divisive racial past but to focus his energies on the great possibilities of the future bringing together the collective efforts and hopes of all groups. American psyche has also come away from segregation to accept the black icons shining in various key, positions defending America and raising the profile of America in the eyes of the world. Colin Powell, Condoleesa Rice, Martin Luther King, Joe Louis, Marina Williams are no longer segregated blacks but integrated whites. They are all world champions who brought honour, respect and glory to America, confirming the American way of life and that elusive American dream. Their achievements broke down the colour bar and made them pioneers who paved the way for Obama to be accepted as the representative of their white glories in the White House. In short, he campaigned on the hidden note of being more white than the whites by hitting eloquently on the high notes of American liberal values with a touch of universality that was idealised as all things all men and women. His victory was not so much a triumph for minorities as a resounding affirmation of the white, liberal heart of America. It can be guaranteed that there will be no change in the colour of American politics.

The change was in the triumph of white American liberalism which had been pushed into the bush for eight years. It is also his white values that made him a hero on both sides of the Atlantic and the other nations dependent on white American values. So it is not correct to overrate the colour of the President as a triumph for the blacks. Essentially, it is the triumph of a black man wearing a home-made white mask. His Harvard credentials, his clean-cut athletic figure, his mastery of the English language (and not Ebonics, the dialect of the black counter culture), his grace under pressure, his calculated measure of humility went a long way to prove that he is their equal, if not their superior. In time he will be called upon to prove this in ample measure with each step he takes in the troubled world awaiting his entry. And he will. His role domestically will be to redefine Roosevelt in the White House.

Obama would never have caught the imagination of the voting public if he remained an angry black man crying on themes of victimology. He balanced his past with a sharp focus on the future. He knew the narrative of Afro-American like the back of his hand.

If he went down that path he would have gone down like Jesse Jackson. He mission was not to ignite "the fire next time". His mission, in fact, was to douse the fires of racism and embrace multi-ethnic culture where the "other" is not an inferior stranger that should be excluded form the mainstream.

It was a factor embedded in his genes too. The mixed black and white DNA gave him a foot in each colour bloc which made it easier for him to cross barriers with ease and confidence. In other words, it was his decisive shift from his coloured past to the white centre that made him a winner. This is the unmistakable and powerful message contained in the journey of Obama to all minorities living with majorities. If Obama decided to focus on the differences and the divisions how far would he have gone? Or, to make comparisons with Sri Lanka, if he decided to pursue politics of Prabhakaran demanding a separate state, and insisting on the use of Tamil only in a Tamil separate state he would have been booted out before he could step in through the door. It was Obama's capacity to adapt, adopt and adjust inside a majority culture that made his dream come true.

He was the Lakshman Kadirgamar of America. There is, no doubt, that if Prabhakaran spared him he would have been Sri Lanka's Prime Minister.

His suave, polished, cosmopolitan, broad outlook without partisan agendas had endeared him to all communities - except to the die hard Tamil separatists.

Obama said in his characteristic style: "For as long as I live," said Obama, "I will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible." Here he was once again paying tribute the white Americans who made it possible for him to realize his dream. But he is not entirely accurate here. This is a line that could have come from a Tamil king invited to rule a predominantly Sinhala-Buddhist state.

Of course, there are those who still argue that one black swallow does not make a white summer. He will have to conform to every white norm set by his white predecessors. White America will be scrutinizing his every move to challenge any deviation from their centre. The more he sinks into his chair in the White House he and his family cannot afford to deviate from the established white traditions. No one will grudge that his first appointment to White House is a dog for his two lovely kids. But the rest will be drawn from the white centre with the possibility of John Mc Cain, with whom he has so much in common, playing a significant role. Though the economy is rotten this may be the very reason why he will be to reach across the political divide and bring about an unprecedented rapprochement with the right he attacked. In short, he will have to be like his white mother and his maternal grandparents than his Kenyan father. It will not be difficult for him to follow in his mother's footsteps because he was more close to them than to his father.

All in all, there is not going to be a change in the colour of the White House during Obama's stewardship. Any move in the opposite direction will frighten the electorate and send them back scurrying into the hands Sarah Palin who is now touted as the next Republican candidate. America is now more than ready for a female president and missteps of Obama's will collectively pave for a red-necked, moose-hunting Palin from the Republicans for sure. That would complete the electoral firsts for both parties, with the Democrats producing the first black president and the Republican presenting the first woman president.

Initially, Obama will be forced to go through Keynsian phase before he reverts to a modified - perhaps, more regulated - version of Reaganomics fathered by Friedman. His electoral posture was to be somewhat of an isolationist in politics and protectionist in economics. But the new realities facing him would bring him down to earth on both counts.

Global politics and economics are two hot potatoes which he will have to keep juggling for his survival and the rest of the world. Looming large is the coming confrontation with Russia which is provocatively flexing its muscles on the European borders challenging America's might. At the height of the Cold War American think tanks were overflowing with Sovietologists.

Now they are looking around frantically for Russologists because America is yet to find a new strategy to deal with the tough guys on the international scene: Putin and his protege Medvedev.

Obama's election promise of becoming all things to all men, women, children gays, straights, Asians, Hispanics, left, right, Jews, Arabs, Indians and Chinese and Pakistanis have raised huge, if not insurmountable expectations.

His political plate at White House will never be empty. In fact, it will be overflowing.

The joke doing the rounds said that the moose will be saved if Palin wins and the world will be saved if she loses. Now that Obama has defeated Palin can he pull the world back from rolling down to the brink of the abyss? All expectations are hanging on him to play the role of the redeemer. That is how high the expectations are running at the moment. That is also the reason why his victory transcends beyond the borders of the America to encompass planet earth. The greening of the planet, in the rounded sense of the word, now rests on his hands with the best wishes of those who dream of Obama as the miracle man who can do the job. He and followers cried again and again: "Yes, we can." For the moment the world will give a clenched fist punch in the air saying: "Amen to that." Yet it must be admitted that his daring audacity of hope is almost overwhelming. This is the primary reason why each new day will relentlessly remind Obama that he has many miles to go before he can sleep. Many miles to go!