Yes we can, Obama!

About a week ago, while looking at the old dampened pages of newspapers stashed away somewhere in an inaccessible corner of my room, I had to take a pause. The dusty bundle contained some of my first articles that I had written in the late 1990s. While leafing through the long forgotten pages, I stumbled on my first piece of writing that I had written for The Frontier Post. “The world has come a long way�, I muttered after reading its headline, “A ray of hope�. Now, the headline seemed to carry no significance to me in the context of the bleak global political and economic scenario that surrounded us.

I was now convinced that the thesis of the article focused on such vague concepts as the possibility of realising a better world by coming together for the cause of democratic principles and economic interdependence. Surely, it was a maiden effort at expressing myself. And the drive was laden with optimistic ideas of a teenager that saw life through the prism of ideals. I came to the conclusion there and then; in those days my thought process was amateurish at best and that now I had grown into a responsible thinker, if not a self-styled intellectual.

Only two days after that episode of ‘objective re-evaluation’ of my thinking faculties, I have to revise my ruling once again. Today, I feel like harking back to the same ‘clichéd’ ideas and ideals, of a world where humans have rights, where exploitation is kept to the minimum, and where brute force does not chart out our destiny…. Obama seems to be saying the same thing in his own context, “It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.�

The reason behind indulging in sheer romanticism is simple, Barack Obama has emerged as the President-elect of the United States — certainly, no little feat. No wonder, the whole world is rejoicing, literally, at Obama’s victory. I now realise that I had not put my pen to paper for nothing at that time. Much has happened and changed from the late 1990s to the present day but the essentials of human existence and prosperity will never change, and hoping for the best is one aspect of it. And Obama was convincing here, “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.�

To me, those dismissing the urge to carve a comparatively better world out of the present chaos are throwing a spanner into the enormous wave of hope. This is not fair. Sketching out a dismal picture of the days to come is like jumping to hasty conclusions. Hope is something that this world of ours had become alienated to for quite some time. This is what he has to say, “And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.�

We understand though that no overnight change is going to come about. It is not like one would get up in the morning and tune in to CNN or BBC to find out that the war on terror had come to a happy ending and that Nato forces had packed up to leave after signing a peace treaty with the Kalashnikov-wielding Taliban. Similarly, in Pakistan’s context, if one thinks that now the US’s tilt towards India on matters such as nuclear energy will also shift towards Pakistan are living in a fool’s paradise, and so on. So, what is this euphoria all about, at least in Pakistan? Even the remotest possibility of change is what this excitement is pointing at.

There is certainly no comparison between President Bush and Barack Obama, and it is not just the colour of their skin. Many people around the world today believe that Obama will at least try to make his mark in the field of international relations and at the domestic front as well, something that President Bush also believed in but did it in a different way — by invading Iraq, in the hope of finding the WMDs, and Afghanistan, in an attempt to root out ‘extremism’, and not doing enough to prevent the economic crisis at home.

We are not demanding of Obama to perform a miracle, we should not expect that. But it seems to me, and many people across the world would agree with my assessment, that Obama will leave a better world when he leaves the White House four or eight years from now than what he confronts today. The American establishment, in whatever way you describe it — the powerful CIA or the Israeli lobby, etc, would play their games to create hindrances in the process of any change that Obama has talked about. And why do we tend to believe in what he says?

Perhaps one of the factors for that is his personal and political background, “I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn’t start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington – it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.�

According to a news report, even the Taliban have shown cautious optimism by calling upon the new President to revise the US’s unilateralist policies. There is weight in the argument that at the moment, we do not know for sure whether the US would completely break from its recent past. But even if it succeeds in partially changing its course, its relations with the rest of the world would improve considerably.

Somebody has rightly pointed out that now is the best opportunity for Pakistan to re-identify the contours of its relation with the US based on mutual respect and understanding. The time to move in this direction is now. “The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there.� We should keep our fingers crossed!