Why must a Malaysian ‘Obama’ be a Chinese or an Indian? Can't a Malay qualify? If we follow this narrow sense of validation, then we are discriminating against capable Malays who aspire for justice and equality.

On this level of thinking, we are certainly dismissing the very core idea of non-racial politics that Barack Obama represents.

If we equate skin colour or race in this restricted sense, then Obama arrived in Malaysia 27 years ago in the form of Tun Mahathir (Indian) or Tun Hussein Onn (mixed Turkish blood) 32 years ago or Abdullah Badawi (mixed Chinese blood) 7 years ago.

If we want a Chinese or an Indian prime minister, it would definitely be a long wait – a very long wait. This is because we have not even started to discuss terms for a Bangsa Malaysia. The old social contract is breaking down and yet we have not sat down to discuss a new one which is agreeable to all races.

We do not have a melting pot of cultures. In reality, we do not even agree on the type of pot in which all our cultures can be melted into. We are still embroiled in the Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera dichotomy which is akin to a mild caste system.

Bangsa Malaysia is just an illusion. Like Arthur Miller's American dream depicted in his play, Death of a Salesman, the idea that anybody can become rich and succeed in American society is illusionary. The character in Arthur Miller's play, Willy Loman, found his dreams unattainable if not insurmountable just like in the ‘Malaysian Dream’. We are still far from achieving this aspiration.

Social contract does change. It changes with time. No where in his historical speech did Martin Luther King mention a black president. But the main thrust of his dream was to amend justice by a new social contract that espoused the importance of one’s character over the colour of one’s skin.

King's dream was about justice, non-violence, compassion and at the core of it, harmony between the whites, blacks and other races in America. This is what Obama is all about.

Is this not what Anwar Ibrahim has been talking about all this time?