Barack Obama, 47, the son of a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas was elected as the 44th President of the United States on Tuesday. America has again show why the country is the greatest nation ever. America is a place where all things are possible. Who would have thought that a black man, whose fate is destined to be a slave if today is 400 years ago, could become the president of the most powerful country in the world? Instead of congratulating President Obama, there are actually many things that we can learn from this latest historic moment. In fact there’re some similarities when you compared the latest U.S. election with Malaysian’s election in Mar.

Eight out of 10 voters were damn worried about the U.S. economic crisis, so much so that they couldn’t afford to see the crisis hurt their finances hence the swing of votes to Obama. It was the same about 8-month ago when majority of Malaysian cannot stand the sleepy PM Abdullah Badawi anymore because he was clueless about economy ever since he scored landslide victory 4-years ago. President Obama has the new (more than double of 11 percent of electorate) and young voters (two-thirds of voters under 30) to thank for delivering the important scores. It was the same about 8-month ago in Malaysia when the new and youngster crossed the racial boundary to cast their votes to opposition parties regardless of Chinese-based DAP or Malay-based PAS and multi-racial-based PKR.

Most importantly a new chapter in U.S. has been written for many future generations to remember – you can become the President of the United States regardless of your race. Will Malaysia (I heard some of you said Singapore) see such historic moment in a not so distance future? Probably not during current generation simply because the racism is so entrenched as if it is part of the culture, thanks to the successful implementation of Mahathirism over 22-year rule under dictatorship. The latest appointment of Low Siew Moi as acting general manager of PKNS that attracted objections was perhaps the best litmus test to justify why Obama will not happen in Malaysia for at least another 50-year. Maybe it is true that Malaysians are not mature enough to deserve a capable and great leader, regardless of his or her race, who can drive this country to become a greater nation – much better than Singapore or Hong Kong.

Now that the election is over all eyes will re-focus back to the economic mess, not to mention the “buy on rumor, sell on news” profit taking activities that are set to starts after the recent gains. On the local front, the RM7 billion stimulus package announced by Finance Minister and de-facto Prime Minister next Mar should be applauded. Already there’re speculations whether the RM7 billion is really derived from the money saved from the reduced fuel subsidy. Let’s hope the government is not working behind the scene to borrow the money from EPF again after Najib’s earlier plan to inject RM5 billion borrowed money from EPF to stock market drew criticism as it was claimed the money (RM5 billion) was actually meant to pay Valuecap “debt-call”. Let’s give Najib the benefit of doubts for the moment, shall we?

Between the two persons obviously Najib is a better person (than Abdullah Badawi) in laying investors confidence. He may be the most tainted Prime Minister in-waiting in the history of Malaysia but with Mahathir working behind the scene, he should be able to demonstrate and justify why he’s a better leader than Abdullah Badawi. In fact Najib is racing against time in order not to suffer the same fate as Republican in the next general election. Only time will tell if Najib’s RM5 billion plus RM7 billion plans are another hoax with lots of “leakages” specially designed to enrich his cronies. Let’s see if he has learnt anything from U.S. election during the coming UMNO assembly although I doubt he’ll threaten to bathe his keris (Malay dagger) with Chinese blood. He and his cousin Hishamuddin has done that so let’s see if it’s Mahathir’s son turn this time to play with the keris again.

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Obama or McCain, place your bets and Make Pocket Money
• Time is Tough but don’t be Silly and Commit Suicide
• Will Malaysians wake up to face the Economic Challenge?
• The New Great Depression is a Different Animal, Stupid

Tweet

November 5th, 2008 by financetwitter

If you enjoyed this post, what shall you do next? Consider: