By IPS Correspondents
BANGKOK, Nov 4 2004 (IPS)

While many Asians were dismayed when they woke up to the news on Thursday morning that George W Bush had been re-elected to a second term as president of the United States, their leaders hailed his return and pledged to cooperate closely with Washington.

Award-winning Indian author Arundhati Roy could not hide her disbelief when she first learnt early Thursday that Bush had been re-elected.

Currently in Australia to receive the Sydney Peace Prize, she told reporters: ”It is difficult to see why the war was not a major election issue (in the United States.).”

”The sense that that kind of brutality is good, or at the very least acceptable and in the interests of people (in the United States), I suppose, is one of the biggest dilemmas that face the world today,” she said.

For Roy, this is her second big disappointment within a month.

Last month, the author urged Australians at their elections to dump Prime Minister John Howard, one of the main supporters of Bush’s Iraq campaign and the first, besides Britain, to contribute troops toward the U.S.-led invasion of the Middle Eastern country.

Howard was returned for a fourth term with an increased majority and his conservative coalition garnered enough votes to have full control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

That Australian ”irrationality” seems to have been repeated in the United States, critics say.

”It will take some time for the U.S. election results to sink in,” said Thitinan Phongsudhirak, a political scientist with the Bangkok-based Chulalongkorn University.

”Wednesday’s results are a validation of Bush’s policies and the people of the United States gave him that,” Thitinan told IPS. ”We can’t quibble about it, we have to accept what the people of the U.S. want.”

According to Thitinan, there seems to be a gap between the North American people and the rest of the world. ”If we had a choice of voting in the U.S. elections, it was quite certain Bush’s challenger John Kerry would have got in.”

For Singaporean student Peter Li, the U.S. election was a toss-up between an incumbent president whose economic reforms had broadened the gap between the rich and poor and a challenger whose stance on issues swayed with public opinion.

”So where are the decent candidates?” he asked.

”It’s not right that this election saw historic levels of voter turnout, but was limited by choosing the lesser of two evils. The right to vote isn’t the only democratic right citizens have. The people of the U.S. must also have the right to better candidates,” said Li in an e- mail interview.

On the diplomatic front, however, there was relief all around with Bush’s re-election because it means business-as-usual with the United States.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said: ”I want to develop Japan-U.S. ties further by giving importance to the confidence and friendship I have built with President Bush.’’

Speaking briefly to reporters at his office, the premier said he believes the Bush administration’s security policies will ”basically not change”’ in its second term although it is facing the tough challenges of uniting a divided nation and mending diplomatic rifts caused by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

For Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Bush’s re-election means continuity in the ”global war on terror” and bilateral and economic trade relations with the United States.

”I think he (Bush) has had a lot of information on how to deal with global security. I think many things will improve after the elections,” Thaksin told reporters Thursday morning.

”Democrats have an inward-looking platform while Republicans have an outward -looking platform. If the Republicans win, FTA (free trade agreement) talks will move ahead, but if Democrats win, FTA talks will slow down,” added the prime minister.

Pornsilp Patcharin-tanakul, deputy secretary general of Thailand’s Board of Trade, was quoted in ‘The Nation’ daily as saying Thai-U.S. FTA negotiations would not change under Bush. But Pornslip said that if his challenger John Kerry took the helm, Thailand would face tougher trade negotiations.

Pornsilp said environmental, social and labour barriers would be raised if Kerry were in office.

China’s President Hu Jintao sent a congratulatory message to Bush saying: ”I look forward to continuing to work together with you to further promote the development of the constructive cooperative relations between China and the United States.”

Hu said that China and the United States, by working together, had played “a positive role in promoting peace and development in Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world.”

Unlike other Asian leaders, his was a more measured response as recent commentaries in the Chinese press suggested that China would have preferred Kerry in the White House.

On Monday, the English-language ‘China Daily’ republished a commentary by former foreign minister Qian Qichen that implicitly criticised the Bush administration for the Iraq war and a ”bullying” style of foreign policy.

”Asia can expect more of the same in terms of foreign policy from the second Bush administration,” said political scientist Thitinan. ”A second term gives the president substantial leeway to do whatever he wants. And that could mean deepening the war on terror.”

Michelle Tan, a 19-year-old Singaporean student, summed up her frustration in these words: ”I mean, do the people of the United States really want to be put through more wars, job losses and deficits? It’s so hard to fathom. How can 59 million people (U.S. citizens who voted for Bush) be so stupid?”

(*with additional reporting by Hedirman Supian and Suvendrini Kakuchi in Tokyo)

Excerpt: