Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Is Barack Obama a minority President?

Is Barack Obama a minority President?

Many articles expressing jubilation regarding the election of Barack Obama
as president of the USA appeared in your newspaper. Some of these berated
the Sinhala majority for not making it possible for a member of a minority
community to be head of state.

The most recent article on this matter was written by Izeth Huessein (The
Island, 27th November 2008). Hence most of the issues raised in this letter
relate to that article.

The first point to be examined is whether Barack Obama is a minority
president. The truth is that he does not belong to a minority in American
society. In the United States, the "Black" population also belongs to the
majority because they have no cultural, religious, linguistic or any other
feature which would distinguish them as a separate group from the rest of
American society. The majority of them are Christian, all speak English and
are loyal citizens of the United States. They even have western names and
surnames but Obama is an exception as he has a Kenyan first name as well as
a family name.

Moreover. Barack Obama contested the presidential election from a mainstream
political party, the Democratic Party. It is an accepted norm in democracies
that political parties play a pivotal role at elections and not ethnicity.
Although Barack Obama's father is Kenyan, his mother is American. This fact
clears all doubt about his American identity. In no sense is Barack Obama a
minority president.

Izeth Hussein's article of 27th November 2008, cited the French president
Sarkozy's alien origins to support the French principles "Liberty, Equality,
and Fraternity, the slogan of the French Revolution. There are many such
instances in Europe where aliens who adopted the ways of the society they
chose to live in, reached the top. One example was Benjamin Disraeli who
became Prime Minister of England. Disraeli's father who was a Jew, migrated
to England from Venice and set up a business. One of his friends advised
Disraeli senior to get his children to conform to the religion of the
majority English. This Disraeli did, and later his son Benjamin Disraeli
became prime minister. Even the way the family name was written had to
undergo a change from D'israeli to Disraeli.

India is the least relevant example to draw a parallel to Sri Lanka. In both
countries, dynasties played an important role in politics. Sonia Gandhi is
the head of the Indian Congress Party not on her own merit but because she
was connected to a family which produced three prime ministers of post -
independence India. When the Congress Party swept the polls at the last
Indian general elections, she should have been the prime minister according
to accepted tradition. But, that was not what happened.

The Indian- ethnic structure cannot be compared with that of Sri Lankan
society India is a land mass of which the geographical boundaries were never
congruent with one main political entity or one specific ethnic group or for
that matter one religion. India's geographical boundaries coincided with
that of one State only after the British subjugated the country. The present
Indian population is a continuation of what had been Indian society
consisting of Dalits, Sikhs. Brahmins, Rajputs, Gurkhas, Dravidians, Dogras,
Marathas, etc. These groups formed the Indian population. They are
indigenous people and not migrants or aliens. Although the Muslims were
-Invaders they brought an extensive part of India under their rule and
contributed to Indian art and architecture in no small measure. Yet again, a
good proportion of the Indian Muslims were indigenous as most were converts.
No ethnic or religious group can be identified as a predominant group as the
Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. No ethnic group can be said to have shaped the
history of India. It is no surprise if a Dalit a Gurkha or Sikh becomes the
Indian president or prime minister.

Going back to first election under Universal Franchise in Sri Lanka,
Anuradhapura elected HR Freeman, a European, to represent them as their
member. Freeman was returned uncontested in 1936 to the same constituency.
In that year the constituency of Bandarawela was represented by GA Fellows,
another European. What was important was that both were accepted by the
voter. Barack Obama confirmed his national stature after the elections by
stating that he stands not for Black America, White America or red America
but for the United States of America.

Barack Obama's victory is a reflection not only on American society, but
also on the Individual that Barack Obama is. In Sri Lanka, Mr. Lakshman
Kadirgamar was our Barack Obama.

Prem Rodrigo
--
Battula Karthik Navayan, Advocate, C/o Siddhartha Hospital,Parigi Road,
Shadnagar,
Mahaboobnagar District, 509216-AP Cell:09346677007,
email:navayan@gmail. com
http://karthiknavay an.blogspot. com/

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