President Obama and the world

Jan 21, 2009 Editorial

President Barack Obama delivered his Inauguration Speech to over a million live spectators in his nation’s capital — and to hundreds of millions across the world, including many of us in Guyana glued in front of our TVs, who gathered spontaneously to witness history in the making.

The 44th President of the US did not disappoint either his domestic or his foreign audience, and even in the remarks dedicated to the former, the latter could be enlightened. He explicitly promised: “All other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.”

Rejecting the neo-liberal dogma of a “night-watchman” state that was, since the eighties, foisted by the IMF on economies in trouble, like ours, President Obama declared: “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.” He also rejected the neo-liberal “market fundamentalism” in acknowledging the power of the market but noting the responsibility of governments to deliver social justice: “Without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favours only the prosperous.”

It is our hope that the mandarins in the IMF were listening, and will cut some slack for administrations like ours to expand their intervention into the real economy, so that “growth and prosperity” — which is the test as to whether governments “work” or not – could return.

As we had telegraphed ahead in our editorial of yesterday, “O-Day”, the President highlighted the importance of diversity in the American society in generating stability and harmony: “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers.” Like ours, he noted that the US society had passed through dark times, but that, “We cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass…(and) that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve”. We hope that our leaders have that same faith in us.

His message to the oppressed of the earth was touching: “To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.”

The explicit promise of assistance recognised the responsibility of those economies to play a greater role than they have done up to now: “And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.” We would not be unreasonable to expect that the US will increase the level of its assistance to the developing world in the coming years – even in the face of its own difficulties.

Rather that extolling an abstract – and malleable – notion of “democracy” that his predecessor had deployed as an excuse for foreign adventurism, President Obama was very specific about the practices that America abhorred and would resist: “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

Noting the moral restraints of the power of a state such as the US, President Obama promised an, “even greater cooperation and understanding between nations.” He explicitly reiterated his commitment to the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, and spoke directly to the group that many believe is in its firing line today: “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”

While one cannot extrapolate US foreign policy from the history of a single individual, when that individual has been chosen by fate to define that policy, that history cannot be but significant. And the history of President Obama has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is a builder, not a destroyer.

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