Now that the din and bustle surrounding the Presidential Inaugural ceremony, etc, has settled and Barack Obama and his team have begun to move around in the corridors of power in Washington, it may not be out of place to make some tentative observations.
However, I have always believed that a top leader should be allowed at least 100 days in office before any definitive appraisal of his performance is attempted. That is one reason why I have not yet written a word about the new Barack Obama administration. But that’s no reason to overlook the opinions coming out at the beginning of the Obama era.
In this post I would do a cut and paste job of my reaction to a series of two articles by an American professor that appeared recently in a Pakistani blog. (To read the articles in full please click here… And here…
Writing under the heading “Democracy Promotion and Islam” in The Pakistani Spectator, Prof Michael Brenner says:
“Obama will enter the White House with wide popular support and goodwill. He will have no specific mandate, though. His popularity will be based mainly on his personality and his being non-Bush. On foreign policy, the dispositions of public opinion are clear: do something to end the Iraq imbroglio but don’t do anything that embarrasses the U.S.; pursue a more multilateral tack but don’t forget American exceptionalism and safeguard our right to take action as we see fit; steer clear of open-ended nation-building projects, except where they create bulwarks against terrorists – e.g. Afghanistan; spent less money abroad, we need it at home; make us popular in the world again. Not much guidance there on how to untangle multiple, intersecting dilemmas in the Greater Middle East.
To me this opinion seemed to be in common with some other commentaries that I have read elsewhere so far. And here was my reply:
“Let me take these arguments one by one. Obama has a clear mandate of the American people to get the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan, whether it causes embarrassment to the USA or not.
I do not understand what is meant by keeping America’s prestige intact while at the same time sacrificing the lives of the US and allied troops, as also the innocent local civilian populations, in an unending war.
Again, how is it possible to indulge in multilaterlism, and at the same time expecting the USA to continue to exercise “exceptionalism and safeguard our right to take action as we see fit.”
I am afraid this line of thinking is either borne out of naivete or a continuation of the Bush double-speak. So where is the CHANGE from the Bush era?
Let us be clear on this issue. The cardinal rule of multilateralism in foreign policy is a sincere desire to evolve a consensus, and then abide by that consensus.
The tone and tenor of the article above seems to be based on an assumption that the people living outside the USA are either morons or half barbaric. Such people, so the argument seems to go, need to be civilized by introducing “democracy” in these countries.
This obsession with introducing “democracy” (at selective places?) has become a modern-day evangelical crusade comparable to the missionary zeal of the colonial era to introduce Christianity to “civilize” the subject races.
I repeat that if the USA wishes to survive the follies committed during the past eight years of the Bush era, the ruling and the intellectual class should realise by now that Afghanistan has been the graveyard of many ambitious rulers in the past centuries. Even the Soviet Union collapsed after its misadventure in Afghanistan.
It is time that arrogance, avarice and greed (which was the hallmark of the Bush administration) should be replaced with a sincere effort to rebuild the US economy and bring peace to the world. The USA which once provided inspiration to newly independent countries, is now in deep trouble itself because of the questionable and dangerous policies of its leaders.
Obama administration has so far not offered a plan, or made a visible attempt, to reach out to the leadership in Europe, Asia or the Middle East to sort out the intractable problems that threaten world peace, stability and economy.
It will be a great pity if Obama loses this grand opportunity to bring about a real CHANGE while riding at the crest of the immense popularity that he still enjoys worldwide.”
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.