Dear President-Elect Obama,
Congratulations on a very well deserved victory. More importantly, it is a very convincing affirmation of the lofty ideal of the founding of the United States of America.
The ideals that led to the declaration of independence, later enshrined in the American constitution have often suffered on the shoals of populism constricted by deeply ingrained prejudices. It has been a protracted struggle for the United States as well as other democracies. It has taken America a long time to overcome many deep-rooted prejudices to elect you as the next president.
It is indeed a new dawn for our country. The world has looked up to the idea of America and the ideals of the American creed, but has been disappointed and rebuffed many times. Particularly the last eight years have been an antithesis of American Ideals.
This is a bitter sweet moment for you. The passing of your grandmother, a day before your well earned victory is indeed very sad. A modicum of satisfaction for you is that she knew you are what she had dreamed and hoped for you to be.
You are about to assume the leadership of a great country that suffered the indignity of being lead by a coterie of narrow-minded thugs who violated every principle this great country stood for. They were able to do it by fear mongering to exploit the tragedy of 9/11. The foreign policy is in shambles. In the name of fighting terrorism they abandoned all moral principles to the extant that the world sees us as a nation led by a rogue President. They handed the economy to the Kleptocrats on the Wall-street in the name of deregulation. These are very tough times for our country and the world.
The good news is that the world still is waiting for a sane and principled leadership. The greatest gift of our democracy is that every four years we get a chance to chart a new course. About four years ago in the last election Americans stirred from a nightmare but were frightened into closing their eyes to fall into a deeper nightmare. Finally we have been shaken up from our worst nightmare to reject the purveyors of fear.
This is our opportunity to pull back from the precipice of the misguided Bush doctrine of leading by brawn in the manner of a small-minded street fighter. A great leader leads by thoughtful principled analysis of problems. You have proven your capabilities in the last two years of grueling campaign.
You are starting with a national mandate and universal goodwill. The challenges are enormous and our resources are stretched very thin. You have no time to relax in the glow of this historic victory.
You have to devise an economic program that gives people hope, provides job, rewards hard work, curbs greed and punishes those who exploit our freedoms and the economic system.
You have to reassure the world that America values principles and respects all nations and peoples who want to live in peace and justice. You need to take strong steps to resolve the festering Israeli-Palestinian problem equitably. It is the key. It has not only hampered the American ability to solve many other problems, but has helped create many of the festering problems of the last few decades.
The wars are not always avoidable, but they should be the last resort, only when all else fails and the nation is in mortal danger. Unprincipled wars of supremacy are feudalistic and can not succeed in the age of instant communications. The Iraq war needs to end as you promised. The war in Afghanistan needs a very strong component of diplomacy and mercy towards those who can be drawn back from Taliban’s cruelty, so that we do not create more enemy as we have been doing by indiscriminate bombing of civilians almost on a monthly basis. It only weakens our cause and makes the enemy stronger. As you said we need to negotiate with our enemies on the basis of equity and not supremacist ultimatums.
We have supported you in the hope that you will govern with courage, thoughtfulness and justice. We will offer our constructive criticism as citizens of a great and free nation. We stood up against the intimidation of the last eight years to elect you. We intend to protect that precious right and will show dissent in the best and most valuable American tradition when warranted.
With best wishes to you and our country, Mirza
This election in the United States was significance for many reasons for the International community. I am happy for two reasons. There would be no more four years of the Bushism and secondly, I have started liking the American a lot. Since my childhood, I never found any muslin admiring America a lot. Mullah and general Muslim population consider the USA is always behind the problem in the Muslim Society. From Israel bashing to Gulf Wars, from Indo-Pak relationship to the war against terror, the USA is responsible. After coming to this place, I have realized the false propaganda in the Muslim society about the USA.
The choice of Obama as the President of the USA itself shows that the American believe of changing the perspective rather than gossiping around the corner of the shared spaces as generally popular among the Muslim community. We as a Muslim never try to put adhere the rule of democracy in our religious matter, while the Quran promote the concept of equality on the basis of humanity and this is universal appeal of every organizations, which are working for universal peace.
The Obama phenomenon is a eye opening for the Muslim World and the community to rethink, what we perceive and what it is actually exist in the world. The Mullah should learn the ethics of Islam in their teaching. They should promote the culture of exploration and enquiry among the community. Democracy do has many problems, but there is no alternative of democracy. For lasting and durable peace, we need to strengthening the democratic values and practice in the Muslim community.
Sharique
Thanks for the tip on Negro terminology Sudie, even though I was too innocent to sense any racial connotation in that. (Hope “Black man” is more alright).
In fact the election of Obama is suggestive of an irony of democracy, where the majority choice is the antithesis of their true interests and their characteristic identity. This is similar to what if Muslims votes BJP into Power.
This is where the baser interests of the population takes precedence over their intellectual interests, similar to religion taking precedence over science – here hunger over racism. Few will be convinced that American whites, unlike their compatriots in the Europe, have suddenly become large-hearted enough to tolerate an Afro-American as their President. In fact there will be nothing more tormenting for them than this for the next four years. And there is nothing much wrong in this psychology too, as a black nation is yet to vote a white man into power.
Considering that the ordinary people were desperate for a change, and for a Messiah, it had to be a Democrat this time. I am oblivious of the circumstances which brought Obama to the top ranks of the Democratic party. But it may be remembered that it was the Democrats which alleged Muslim links for Obama even more vehemently than Republicans. And he was certainly helped by the fact that his adversary for the party nomination was a woman, in whom people perhaps couldnt view a Messiah.
While I wish well for Obama, my concern is that the disgruntled Americans, rightly or wrongly, may find a role for Islam in bringing about this situation.
Also I agree with all the great things attributed to Obamania here, as long as there are no bombs rained on my house.
Karoly
Going by your argument you might find a Hindu majority country having a muslim head of state, a sikh prime minister and a catholic defacto power center and even a defence minister quite “an irony of democracy”. I call it merit.
Obama has received some of the finest and most elitist of education. He was miles ahead of McCain in being articulate and thoughtful. Most importantly he was a youthful personality who exuded tremendous positive energy and idealism. So much so that he made race irrelevant when people came to judge his competence.
I cannot see any misplaced connection to the one time religion of his biological father who himself had become an atheist. I can see greater connection to the Gandian/Nehruvian thought process that he himself acknowledged. IMHO America would have had no issues with a lady head of state also were it not Hillary’s ability to come across as too arrogant. Plus America has this obsession to be politically correct and Obama fitted the picture well. Obama at the end of the day came across as the most competent leader to bring in “Change” that America so much needed after 8 years of republican rule.
I do not see Obama bombing India also, so if you are in India – I think you might be quite safe unless of course SIMI once again gets excited about virgins in heaven.
Though ofcourse I find the current Indian president a sad joke on the nation especially after a personality like President Abdul Kalam. President Abdul Kalam evoked both awe and respect and could have been our answer to an Obama. With his stellar achievement behind him, President Kalam was one of the most credible and respected head of the state in this day and age.
Our current Vice President however seems upto task. Well….there you have it – a Hindu majority state where the only parliamentarians people respect happen to be Muslims. Ironies of democracy again? The irony is that these muslims are considered greater role models for the Hindus than the Islamists who prefer a Osama or a Saddam Hussain.
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