Embrace Change

Initially I was going to blog about how Obama had been implicitly accused of being a socialist, terrorist and even communist in some blogs :

Barack Obama accused Republican rival John McCain on Wednesday of stooping to low tactics by labeling the Democrat a socialist.

"I don't know what's next," Obama, the presidential candidate, said at an outdoor rally in North Carolina. "By the end of the week, he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten. I shared my peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

It was going to be about how the communist USSR and East Europe bloc broke up, about the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the Cold War (which begs the question, now that a secret communist is going to be the next President of the USA, who actually won the Cold War ?), but I've decided to forgo that for this :

"Malaysia... hopes Obama's government will be more sensitive to the sovereignty of smaller nations and will not use force in resolving global conflicts," Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said in a statement.

"Obama's victory is seen as bringing change and hope to the world," he added.

"Malaysia welcomes him as the new light in the struggle for democracy. As America's first black president his victory has shown that Americans can accept a leader regardless of colour, religion or beliefs."

Now tell me what I'm supposed to feel about my own country ?

You can tell me that the USA is 232 years old and that it took that long to get the first African American President. You can also tell me that it is 'traditional' to have a Malay in the top post of PKNS as stated by Khir Toyo.

Slavery was a tradition in the USA. Apartheid was a tradition in South Africa. Just because it's a tradition, does that make it right ?

The truth is that until the 1960's, the USA was still practising racial segregation in very visible ways.

They have gone from that to a coloured President today. Malaysia didn't have racial segregation or discrimination to such a degree upon Merdeka in 1957. But in the years since, it would seem that we have learnt to institutionalize racism.

It is not something to be proud of.

NB. on a side note, the Celtics team voted 14-1 for Obama.