Asia-Pacific, Headlines, Human Rights, Religion

PAKISTAN/US: ‘Obama’s Muslim Heritage Will Help’

Beena Sarwar

KARACHI, Nov 6 2008 (IPS) - The most watched polls ever in the world had their share of attention in Pakistan, complete with news updates, TV talk shows, call-ins from Pakistanis living in the United States and speeches by President-elect Barack Hussein Obama.

Chatter in tea-stalls and living-rooms continues to be dominated by the U.S. presidential elections. The constant barrage of information streaming in from dozens of television channels in multiple languages has ensured that ‘’even an illiterate person has been educated about these elections,” said Abdul Jabbar, a driver.

“This is the first time that someone with a dark skin has come into a position of such power. Everyone is happy about it,” Jabbar added.

Repairmen gathered by a broken elevator in an upmarket Karachi apartment building on the evening of Nov 4 seemed elated. “He will be the first Black President of the US,” said one, indicating newspaper items to his colleagues as they squatted on the floor over cups of sweet, milky tea.

Electric light from the broken elevator’s open shaft illuminated the Urdu daily ‘Aaj Kal’ that he held open. They looked at a picture of Obama superimposed over an image of the White House. A repairman poked his head out of the elevator shaft to take a look. “I think this will be good for Pakistan,” he said.

Many Pakistanis hope Obama’s Muslim heritage will make him more understanding of their culture, even though the President-elect has consciously distanced himself from this heritage, even dropping the use of his middle name Hussein.

As a student in Lahore told a television reporter, explaining why Obama’s election has given hope after eight years. “He has some cells of Muslim blood”.

Another student disagreed, saying that while Obama may be good for the U.S. , “it doesn’t make much difference to Pakistan”.

There has been interest here about Obama’s ‘Pakistan connection’, stemming from a college friend whom he mentions in his memoir, ‘Dreams from my Father’. He is also reported to have travelled to Pakistan in 1980 (when his mother Ann Dunham worked here with a micro-credit finance project ) and in 1981 to visit a college friend.

“Pakistanis grudgingly share the global excitement of Mr. Obama’s victory,” contends Islamabad-based political analyst Nasim Zehra, “Grudgingly, because many have not forgotten his campaign rhetoric of possibly attacking Pakistani territory to combat terrorism.”

Former newspaper editor and ambassador to Washington Maleeha Lodhi, currently a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, told a television anchor that such rhetoric may perhaps have been an attempt to “act and sound tough on Afghanistan and Pakistan” since Obama had opposed the war in Iraq.

However, as Zehra points out, Pakistanis, who have a greater understanding of the complexity of the terrorism problem and bear the high costs of this violence, “found Obama’s resolve to attack their territory both aggressive and naïve.” As many as 3,000 military and paramilitary and many more thousands of civilians have been killed over the last five years as the ‘war on terror’ has escalated.

“This notwithstanding, Pakistanis at the same time hope for and expect Obama, as president, to be more patient, wiser and more multilateralist in the conduct of US foreign policy. There is also expectation in Pakistan that behind his combative electioneering rhetoric exists a more informed outlook that will determine America’s choices,” says Zehra.

Many considered Obama’s victory speech both sober and thoughtful. He also indicated his willingness to reach out and dialogue rather than use force. As he said in Chicago on the night of Nov. 4, ”the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope’’.

Obama’s priorities were also indicated by his positive references to the working poor, to women, the importance of building schools and creating jobs, and the acknowledgement that “we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers’’.

The U.S. elections also reinforce the importance of the electoral process, a lesson that many consider necessary for Pakistan to learn, given that its democratic process has constantly been interrupted by governments being toppled under a constitutional amendment introduced by a military dictator, or by military rule itself.

Asked by a Pakistani reporter if the U.S. stood at a “moral crossroads” given the policies of the past eight years and the change that has been promised, a commentator responded with words that have consonance here: “That’s why we have elections. That is the beauty of the democratic process. People were not happy with the previous policies, and the people have spoken.”

Americans of Pakistani origin participated enthusiastically in the Obama campaign. They included Omar Ali, a medical doctor in Illinois, who observed that the campaign “mobilised more people than any U.S. campaign in history, and they were friendly, enthusiastic, fair-minded and diverse…Whites, Indians, Pakistanis, Christians, Muslims, people of every group… America at its best.”

“I think he is very smart and his campaign was probably the best run campaign in history, so I have no doubt he will be competent and will pick good people and get them to do good work,” added Ali in a message sent to an e-mail list.

“Having said all that, I know he will be President of the United States, not some new socialist international revolutionary soviet… so I expect that the first people to jump OFF the bandwagon will be those on the far left. Others will no doubt follow,’’ Ali added.