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The Hawaiian-born politician and neighborhood activist, credited with overseeing creation of the most effective online campaign machine in history, was born with Kenyan/Kansas blood running through his veins, which introduces a new hemoglobin into the American national politic – and a needed one. Obama has been described as Kennedyesque, and indeed his speaking is, like Kennedy’s, off the cuff, seemingly unrehearsed and replete with a personal magnetism that engenders trust from the hopeful and distrust from the dishonest.
During his long campaign, Barack Obama promised, among other things, to bring the war in Iraq to a conclusion. The objective is not merely to bring American soldiers home, but to extricate the United States from a costly and unjust aggression that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives. Many ask, indeed, why Iraq had to pay for 9/11.
An Obama administration will be under much more intense scrutiny than others in the past, in part because of the racial undertones, but in larger measure because of the immense issues facing the American public – and the consequences to the world’s public that will result as the United States responds to those issues in word or action.
If one were to engage in conjecture about how to best handle Iraq, one sure-fire method seems to be to reinstate the Baath Party headed by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. While ruthless, it kept order and certainly killed far fewer people, Iraqis and non-Iraqis, than the Bush administration has done from distant and remote-controlled venues.
In dealing with Russia, Obama will have to ensure that the Russians know the United States is under different leadership but still desirous of its own form of international security. To communicate these important positions, will retired General Colin Powell be selected as secretary of defense?
Domestically, Obama has a horrific economic situation to reconcile. Retention of American jobs – currently companies in Connecticut, to cite a single example, are planning to farm out more IT services to foreigners being trained stateside – balance of payments, restoration of American prestige abroad, realignment of U.S. foreign policy overall so that it is compatible with American interests, modification of the sinful bailout engineered by petty corporate crooks, reassessment of American infrastructure to see how it can best be retained, improved and designed for the future – these and thousands more important issues face Barack Obama as president.
The consequences for the world of decisions the Obama administration will make are both promising and frightening. Extrication from Iraq, for example, is a frightening prospect because it potentially leaves a vacuum – created by the United States through an unlawful invasion – that may be filled with pro-Taliban or pro-al-Qaida terrorists.
For Asia, and specifically for Thailand, the implications of Obama’s victory are many-fold. Commerce and military sales, arms and defense agreements will play a primary role as they have traditionally done. But more important, and it must be given higher priority by Washington, is the issue of human rights and democracy in the Land of Smiles.
Over the past decades it has been more than obvious that Thailand’s sociopolitical direction has not been heading toward a more open and democratic society but toward a more closed, secretive and even anti-American one. Of course, the U.S. diplomatic corps will hardly admit to this, being primarily responsible for making sure that things like the Treaty of Amity, military sales and economic relations are maximized to mutual benefit.
But from Thailand’s past performance in dealing with the “great powers” and with “friendly neighboring countries,” it is abundantly clear that Thailand prefers paths that lead to benefits for its leaders rather than for its people. This is not a new international game – everyone plays it. But Thailand seems to be drifting toward a Burmese-Lao-Khmer style of governance, wherein it will retain its current political topography as a pseudo-feudal quasi-democratic independent militaristic kingdom. Is this what the Thai people deserve?
Will the Obama-led U.S. administration be able to deal constructively with an ancient Thailand that is literally adrift in corruption and moral uncertainty? Will Thailand be able to work with Washington to quell southern region anxieties and propel mutual relations to new heights? Will Obama’s administration be able to come up with innovative, just and productive mechanisms that will help steward Thailand away from a seemingly unstoppable corrupt inclination toward what some cite as imminent ruin?
Those of us who are concerned must watch the new administration and pay close attention to the U.S. State Department and just as importantly, the many human rights organizations that need support to help the Thai people remain free.
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(Frank G. Anderson is the Thailand representative of American Citizens Abroad. He was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer to Thailand from 1965-67, working in community development. A freelance writer and founder of northeast Thailand's first local English language newspaper, the Korat Post – www.thekoratpost.com – he has spent over eight years in Thailand "embedded" with the local media. He has an MBA in information management and an associate degree in construction technology. ©Copyright Frank G. Anderson.)
