My point exactly...(cross posting)

My point, exactly... (cross posted from Karina's blog)

By Karina Bahrain “the red pencil”

Obama: The Lesson For Malaysia

Thursday, Nov 6, 2008

Not since the freeing of Nelson Mandela has the world apparently taken such high interest in a national political figure’s ascendance to power. The Obama phenomenon seems to have swept the globe, garnering him supporters from all corners of the world, even among us who have no voting rights in the USA.

That the man has inspired such hope in many of us, even those who may not stand to directly benefit from his leadership speaks to the power that the United States yields as the earth’s most prosperous nation. We all understand the significance of his appointment. It is a clear signal that the world’s richest nation is no longer ruled by a White majority, whether or not you want to downplay the race card.

And it’s about time. It’s about time America joined the majority of the modern world in finally walking the talk. After all, other countries, Britain included, have had minorities lead their governments and states. Peru even had a Japanese man lead their country. India, on that count is leaps and bounds ahead of some of the most developed nations.

America has been long and slow in coming round to really putting its money where its mouth is. For all its talk of freedom, and its self-assumed role as avenger of democracy, it has always perpetuated the glass ceiling of gender and race in its political hierarchy.

Now that ceiling is shattered, by a man who is genetically half White and half Black. Someone that racially at least, is difficult for either side to deny as their own.

Obama’s victory points to a development that we Malaysians should consider in the coming years. In the same way that his victory indicates the changing face of the American voting populace, our political and racial landscape too is shifting.

It will only be a matter of time before a candidate rises to the UMNO presidency who is half Malay. Not someone of nebulous mixed background that needs to be traced through several vague ancestral routes but decidedly bi-racial. As in only one of his or her parents will be Malay.

What of Ketuanan Melayu then? I look to my one-and-a-half-year-old nephew, whose mother is Malay and father is undoubtedly Chinese. Yet, according to definitions set out in our cultural and legal framework, he is classified as Malay. If he were ever to become President of UMNO, what would be his perspective of Malay rights?

Surely you cannot ask him to deny his Chinese family members who have been here for generations and in his mind deserve as much a right to national privileges as his mother’s side of the family?

It’s time we moved on. Even America has, folks. Race is fast becoming an irrelevant card. It is NOT the new black. It’s people who make the difference, not their skin colour. And the sooner we Malaysians realise this, the better we will be positioned to remain relevant in this world where even a politician in a different continent becomes your business.