Is there a Malaysian Obama?

Following Barack Obama's historic inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, Malaysians clamored for a local version to emerge. "We need a Malaysian Obama," is the common refrain.

This can be heard in coffee shop talk, in conversations with taxi drivers and yes, in the blogosphere. "We need an Obama in Malaysia," wrote Cheryl Fernando, whose blog posting probably captured the collective sentiments of many Malaysians.

But although all communities in Malaysia seem to support Obama, the reasons for their support are remarkably different.

Non-Malay support for Obama is understandable. He is a minority in a country where every other president before him came from the majority race. That a second-generation black man could rise to the highest office in a predominantly white country is of course something every minority finds inspiring.

Malay support for Obama is equally easy to understand. His Kenyan father is Muslim and he partially grew up in Jakarta because his step-father is Indonesia. Even his name sounds very Muslim (his middle name is "Hussein"). Surely such a man would have a more sensitive attitude towards the Muslim world.

It is precisely because the reasons for non-Malay and Malay support are so different that there is a negative perspective amongst the former with regard to the prospect of a Malaysian Obama emerging.

"When will I see that day coming?" asks blogger Andy Yong. If you read the rest of his entry, you'll see that it's a rhetorical question and he clearly doesn't expect to see that day coming anytime soon.

"If there is anything we can take away from the US presidential election is that a society which is quick to embrace its minorities will be bestowed with the talents, cultural richness and diversity which can only make it more successful," says political analyst Khoo Kay Peng in a thinly-veiled blog criticism of the political realities in this country.

Blogger Wen Jie was a lot more direct, saying we have no chance of having our own Obama because "our prime minister is solely from the denominated race and the denominated party."

While it is probably true that the Malays who cheer Obama's victory over his white opponent would not fancy the notion of a non-Malay politician becoming the prime minister of Malaysia, it should be pointed out too that the analogy of Obama and a non-Malay politician is not a very good one.

Non-Malays who draw inspiration from Obama's presidency overlook the fact that he has much more in common with the majority race in the US than any local minority politician has with the majority race here.

Yes, Obama is a black man in a predominantly white country. But his presidential campaign would not have gotten anywhere – in fact it would be stillborn – if he happened to be a Muslim rather than a Christian and if he spoke Swahili better than he spoke English.

As political analyst Ong Kian Ming points out, the Malaysian equivalent of Obama would be a Chinese Muslim who is extremely fluent in Bahasa Malaysia, whose mother is Malay and who got his undergraduate degree from a Malaysian public university.

It's worth noting that in Obama's campaign he steadfastly avoided the issue of race. In other words, he purposely made it a non-issue. So, again, the Malaysian Obama should be a non-Malay politician who does not bring up the issue of NEP, vernacular schools or the use of English to teach science and maths.

Political reality dictates that we won't see the Malaysian answer to Obama emerge anytime soon. At least not in the form of a non-Malay politician who happens to be Muslim and is acceptable to all communities. If he's out there somewhere, he's yet to make a ripple in the political scene.

What is more realistic is to hope for a Malay politician to emerge as someone whom all races can appreciate and accept. Someone who talks the language of inclusiveness. Someone who can inspire people to take a non-racial outlook to nation-building.

Does such a politician exist? That's something we all have to ask ourselves.