President-elect Barack Obama's ascension to the throne of the USA has brought much euphoria to many Americans and his sympathisers throughout the world about the future of race relation in that country.

The election of the first African-American president in that race-torn country has enticed some commentators in America to declare Obama as the first post-racial leader of the modern world.

Obama probably sees himself as a post-racial candidate in the election campaign, running on a platform of change rather than one of liberation of the descendents of former American slaves.

american presidential election barack obama 051108 05 In this, he marks a departure from another former African-American presidential candidate Rev Jesse Jackson, a civil rights movement leader who was a few feet from Rev Martin Luther King Jr when the latter was assassinated in 1968. One of the most powerful images from the TV screen on the night of November 4 is still the tearful face of Rev Jesse Jackson as he listened to Obama's victory speech in front of over 100,000 people at Grant Park in Chicago. His torch has been passed on.

Indeed Barack Obama's achievement is an amazing feat for the American people. He has succeeded beyond all odds in the art of the possible. "Transformational" politician leaders like that come once in a life time

You can realise the magnitude of that change only if you imagine something akin to a Chinese, an Indian, an Iban, or a Kadazan, or a mixture of the above, becoming the prime minister of Malaysia. In fact, that unlikely possibility has already been tossed about on the Internet and even the mainstream media.

Everything is possible in America

Naturally, one can understand and empathise with the African-Americans at the sight of one of them made good on an uneven playing field. For them, the Barack presidency, if it is not ended prematurely by a bullet, symbolises their realisation of and possible participation in the American dream, that all things are possible in America.

But to hail Obama's victory as an end to racism in America is way too over-optimistic.

If you look at the electoral map of America, you will know what I mean. Obama's win comes from states along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, as well as from the North West, regions that are industrialised, urbanised, and heavily populated. McCain's support still comes from the rural, agricultural Southern states with deep Christian roots. This division has its roots in the American violent past. The acrimonious contradictions of this nation-wide culture divide certainly still exist, if you recall that McCain's Republican Party still received some 48 million votes!

Out of sheer curiosity, I try to gain access to the website of Ku Klux Klan. It screams out to me in large red letters: "Welcome to the Ku Klux Klan, the Knights' Party, USA, bringing a message of hope and deliverance to White Christian America, a message of love, not hate!" Then, I was informed that their main site (kkk.bz) was experiencing technical difficulties due to high traffic volume (it is up and down by the hour).

On a sister site named Political Cesspool, the first posting has this to say:

rahm emanuel obama 081109 "Obama promised change, but we're just getting more of the same. He's tapped Jew Rahm Emanuel ( left in photo ) to be his Chief of Staff, and Jew David Axelrod to be his Senior Adviser. And all those white liberals thought he really meant it about being against more war in the Middle East. Idiots." In the clansmen's vocabulary, "Jew" almost sounds like a dirty word!"

In case you did not know, Wikipedia gives the following information:

"Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is the name of several past and present secret domestic militant organizations in the United States, generally in the southern states that are best known for advocating white supremacy and acting as vigilantes hidden behind conical masks and white robes. The KKK has a record of violence lynching intimidate and oppress African-American Jews, Roman Catholics labour Unions, during periods of turmoil." Rev Jesse Jackson will know personally a thing or two about the KKK.

Wikipedia reports a sharp decline in clan membership, dropping from six million in 1924 Wikipedia to 2,500 in 2008. But according to the web site ADL-online (To stop the defamation of the Jewish people..to secure the fair treatment and justice for all), the clan may be growing:

"More than 40 different Klan groups exist, many having multiple chapters, or "klaverns," including a few that boast a presence in a large number of states. There are over a hundred different Klan chapters around the country, with a combined strength of members and associates that may total around 5,000."

The hype about being a Jew

After a period of relative quiet, Ku Klux Klan activity has spiked noticeably upwards in 2006, as Klan groups have attempted to exploit fears in America over gay marriage, perceived "assaults" on Christianity, crime and especially immigration."

It irks me that the KKK web-site is down due to heavy traffic. Could it be due to US federal authorities flooding the site to knock it out of service, or could it be a fresh flood of potential members eager to revive the movement at the prospect of an Obama presidency?

The contemptuous mention of "Jew Rahm Emanuel" by the KKK is worthy of attention. His appointment as Obama's Chief of Staff - arguably the most important office in the new administration - has also been a point of contention in the US.

Rahm Emanuel is a former aide of President Bill Clinton, a leading Congressman in the Democrat camp. A long-time Obama supporter in Chicago, and generally recognised as a "consummate Washington insider". If Obama has vowed to change the dirty game in Washington, why would he go and appoint someone who has been so entrenched with the power structure in the capital?

A possible reason is that you do need someone with that kind of credential during this transition period to play the Washington Game the Obama way, so that Obama can get to work in full force from day one on January 20, 2009. Also, with Emanuel's close working relationship with the Democrat leaders who now control the majority in the Senate and the Congress, Obama's legislation can gain support from the two houses smoothly and quickly.

But worrisome to many people is the fact that Rahm Emanuel is a distinguished member of his local Jewish community, and has even served as a member of Israel's armed forces. Does his appointment therefore mean that Obama is pro-Israel and anti-Islam and anti-Palestine?

I do not know whether this question itself is legitimate or not. Underlying this kind of query, there is the assumption that "If you are not with us, then you are against us", a position which was articulated by George W Bush. International relation must be a little more complicated than that.

Then there is the usual subliminal identification between religion and politics. Judaism is a religion, and Zionism is a political ideology. Are all Jews Zionists? Are all Zionists anti-Palestine and Muslim haters? Here the tendency for racial and religious stereotyping is all too easy.

Lastly, there is the usual assumption that only Jews can fight for the Jews and nobody else, and the Jews must fight for the Jews only.

Same racial thinking here

It is the same racial thinking behind the concept of power sharing within the Barisan Nasional in Malaysia. Only the Umno representing the Malays can fight for the Malays, only the MCA representing the Chinese can fight for the Chinese, and only the MIC representing the Indians can fight for the Indians.

barisan nasional The boundaries between these power blocs are drawn and cast in stone, and they stay away from one another's territory for fear of "sensitivities". The result is a Malaysia stuck in the quagmire of racial polarisation and ethnic tension.

Real national integration will come in Malaysia only when Malays will fight for the Ibans, the Chinese will fight for the Malays and the Indians, and the Kadazans will fight for everybody else. All political parties, irrespective of the ethic majority of their constituency, will fight for the rights of Malaysian of all races! Only then will the toxic "otherness" of racial politics be banished to history.

In short, if redemption is to come for our identity politics, we must put on what John Rawls calls "the veil of ignorance". We may never shed our primordial need for an ethnic identity, but in the "original position" in negotiating for a real "social contract" (not the type glorified by Umno) that is based on justice. When we put up this veil of ignorance in making judgment and decisions, we must assume that we will not know how the decision is going to favour us personally or the ethnic group to which we belong.

I have always thought that John Rawls' vision is too idealistic to be true. But Barack Obama - being a former professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago - has demonstrated much of this veil of ignorance in his campaign. He has never expressed directly that he was fighting for his Afro-American community, but his inclusive message will certainly take into its huge tent those under privileged marginalised discriminated Americans of African-American descent.

Whether Barack Obama will fulfil his potential as one of the greatest statesmen from the USA remains to be seen. He has no lack of good will all over the world. I believe he should be given a chance first, although - as one American president put it - eternal vigilance is still the price of freedom.