George W Bush's victory in the American presidential polls drew mixed responses from opposition leaders, academics and social activists here.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng urged the re-elected president to reunify his country and regain global trust in getting the world to work with and not against America in fighting terrorism.

"The failure of finding weapons of mass destruction and providing a justifiable cause for the invasion of Iraq has underlined the importance of truth, multilateralism, democracy and economic justice in the conduct of international affairs," he said in a statement today.

Lim said it was a sad fact that Bush's victory "had delighted fundamentalists from his own evangelical Christian supporters as well as extremist Islamic terror groups that are sworn enemies of the United States".

He called on the president to reappraise his tactics and policies which have the unfortunate consequences of harming innocent civilians and correct his 'mistakes'.

"DAP congratulates Bush on his re-election for a second term and hopes he can acknowledge that his mistakes have made the world a more dangerous place," he added.

No changes

PAS central committee member Kamaruddin Jaafar expects no changes from the Bush administration over the next four years.

"We will continue to face issues like Iraq, Palestine and terrorism as a whole. America will address and handle these matters in a very unilateralist manner with the rest of the world not having a role in it," he said when contacted.

He also expressed grave concern for world peace with Bush continuing his stranglehold on global politics.

Also echoing apprehension was former United Nations (UN) special rapporteur Param Cumaraswamy.

He hoped that Bush's war on terror will not result in making the world an unsafe place.

"There is no doubt that the president has to protect the state and its people," he said.

"If he must go ahead with his war on terror, he must do so within the parameters of international law, something which he has been often reminded off by UN bodies," he added.

Not surprised

Malaysiakini chief analyst James Wong said the American election result did not come as a surprise.

"I'm not trying to sound like a smart-alec but Bush's victory was expected judging from the trend in the Australian elections (where the Conservative's John Howard was re-elected as premier)," he said.

Howard together with British premier Tony Blair are strong allies of Bush.

Wong said 'ordinary Americans', conservatives who made up the bulk of voters from 'middle America', voted in Bush for two reasons.

"One is that they still think there's an external threat to their land, property and culture and two is the domestic factor, where they are concerned with issues like abortion, same-sex marriages and stem cell research, which are seen as a subversion of religious and moral values," added the former parliamentarian.

Bush, who is from the conservative Republican party, opposed these issues. The results also show that his support came entirely from central and southern US in an election that saw the highest voter turnout since 1968.

Looking forward to the next four years of Bush rule is malaysiakini columnist and social activist Hishamuddin Rais, who regards the president as a right-wing revolutionist.

Despite opposing his ideology, the activist said he respects all revolutionaries.

"He stuck to his ideas and did not try to please everyone. There will be an ideologically driven battle over the next four years and I love the intellectual challenge (that it'll pose)," he added.

Global empire

International Movement for a Just World (JUST) President Dr Chandra predicted a backlash from the results and said that Bush's drive to form a US-based global dominance will fuel opposition from the world population.

"Buoyed by his re-election, it is quite conceivable that Bush prodded by the neo-cons around him will push with greater vigour for the establishment of a Washington-helmed global empire.

"Two of Bush's important support groups, the Zionist Right and the Christian Right, for their own reasons will also be pursuing the same goal," said the academic, who suspected US domestic and foreign policies to be influenced by the latter group.

According to him, inevitably more wars are to come especially in the Middle East and other parts of the world - which will violate international law with impunity - because of Bush's drive for an empire.

"Unilateralism camouflaged in the guise of the 'Coalition of the Willing' will be the order of the day," he added in an e-mail communique.

"The only silver lining in the midst of these dark clouds is this: faced with the arrogance and abuse of power on the part of the Bush administration, it is quite possible that the people of the world will stand up and the struggle against Washington's hegemonic power," he added.

Needing 270 electoral votes to secure victory, Bush received 274 as opposed to Kerry's 252 after the results from the controversial state of Ohio were tabulated.