Anyone can be PM? Well said but...

A childhood friend of mine was ecstatic that a black in America could be elected as President that he even posted this message on his Facebook telling his networks in this cyber space of his jubilation.

This history of Barack Obama being elected as the 44th President of America has renewed the idealism of the minority in this country that they can also be elected to the highest political post, in this case, Prime Minister of Malaysia.

I had a long chat with this childhood friend few months ago at a local café when we talked at length on current issues, with of course politics being our major discussion which took us late into the night.

He was adamant why a minority in this country could not assume the post of Prime Minister in this country now that Malaysians from all walks of life could live together harmoniously as one for the past 50 over years, with the exception of the 1969 racial riots.

Our Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi while congratulating Obama for his victory last week said it is possible for anyone from the minority group in this country to be a nation’s leader and that it is up to the people to decide just as the Americans had done through democratic process.

This statement from Abdullah who will be making his way out from the premier’s office March next year must have won praises and accolades from my childhood friend and the minority group in this country.

Then, former Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad reiterated that anyone in this country can be the Prime Minister, thus echoing what Abdullah had said few days earlier.

But, Dr Mahathir stressed that the Prime Minister must be a leader who commands the majority support while saying that race-based politics is still relevant in this country.

Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong was even more blunt when he said the republic, with over 3.5 million people of multi cultural background is not ready for a non-ethnic Chinese premier in the near future.

Hsien Loong had said that there is such a possibility but it all depends on how people vote, on who has the confidence of the population but cast doubt that this will happen any sooner.

Looking at the Malaysian politics, it has yet to dilute itself from the racial trappings despite the political tsunami which swept the nation in the March 8 general election.

The Barisan Nasional coalition for instance, is made up of 14 partners with UMNO, MCA and MIC being racial based parties while Pakatan Rakyat which consists of PKR, DAP and PAS is also very much similar to the Barisan Nasional’s setting.

I concur with Dr Mahathir that it is wrong to assume that Barisan Nasional did not do well because people rejected the race-based party as the Pakatan Rakyat which the people had voted for overwhelmingly is also very much a racial-based coalition.

But of course in the March 8 general election, we could see a new trend emerging where there was a tremendous shift of voting pattern against racial line.

A survey of 1,824 Singaporeans’ views on inter-racial ties by S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies found that 94% of Chinese polled said they would not mind an Indian as Prime Minister and 91% said they would not mind a Malay in the top post.

Hsien Loong said Obama’s win did not mean race was no longer an issue in America and it was just that the Americans were tired and they wanted something different and Obama represented something different.

Over in our homeland, the appointment of a Chinese as a general manager of Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) had caused such a big brouhaha while there was a Malay organization which applied for a court injunction for the Penang DAP state government’s decision to put up road signages in multiple languages, arguing that the move challenges the supremacy of Malay language.

And then there was this infamous son of Ahmad Said who called the Chinese “pendatang” during the Permatang Pauh by-election who was only slapped with three years suspension from UMNO while the journalist, Tan Hoon Cheng who covered his ceramah was not so lucky when she was arrested under Internal Security Act (ISA) only to be released few days later.

Whether or not the voting trend of the March 8 general election will continue is left to be seen but when we have politicians like Ahmad Said or Khir Toyo who still play up to the gallery for selfish reason and fan the racial sentiment, I must say we still have a long road ahead before we could be as ecstatic like my childhood friend was with Obama’s historic win.