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Election day in the United States begins tonight Manila time. All
indications seem to point to a Democratic Party-Barack Obama
victory.
We Filipinos should be concerned about how
President Obama will treat the Philippines and Asean.
It may be good diplomacy for Malacañang, the
National Security Adviser and the Department of Foreign Affairs to
say days before the US election that whoever becomes the new
American president would surely continue to pursue existing US
policy toward the Philippines and Asean.
The truth is that we Filipinos should desire
changes. For the Bush administration, overwhelmingly preoccupied
with Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and the Middle East situation, has
lowered the quality of its attention to Asean and the Philippines.
The USA was markedly closer to Asean during the Reagan years and the
early days of APEC.
This has not been noticed or remarked upon by
those among us who unceasingly make an act of will to perceive
America as nothing more than a former colonizer whose influence and
presence in our country should be drastically diminished.
More realistic Filipinos who correctly see
America as a friend and partner in making ours a better world—as a
source of foreign direct investment and aid, as the most favorite
destination of the majority of Filipinos seeking to emigrate and, of
course, a source of problems every now and then—have seen how the
Philippines has almost disappeared from the White House’s radar
screen. This despite the Philippine media’s coverage and praise of
the activities of the American ambassador and her associates. The
people appreciate the cooperation of our Armed Forces and their us
US counterparts in Balikatan exercises, medical missions and other
civic works, especially in Mindanao.
The latest survey of the Social Weather
Stations—released only the other day—shows that 76 percent of
our people think it would not matter for the Philippines who gets
elected president of the USA. Only 13 percent prefer Barack Obama
and 9 percent would like to see John McCain elected. This was
learned in the SWS survey conducted on September 24 to 27.
Unlike most non-Americans in other countries,
Filipinos were found by the survey to be minimally interested in the
US election. Only 25 percent of us closely followed the election
news. And Obama got a trust rating of -5 which is statistically
neutral while McCain got a poorer -15 trust rating.
Earlier, on October 21, Gallup disclosed that
its survey in late May 2008 showed Filipinos slightly favoring
McCain (28 percent of those surveyed) over Obama (20 percent). This
is consistent with the general trajectory of the pro-Obama sentiment
in the US itself.
But this preference for McCain in May 2008
distinguished the Filipinos from other non-Americans at that time.
We were one of only a handful of countries that favored McCain. The
majority—52 percent—of Filipinos had no preference. And 49
percent said they thought it mattered who got elected US president.
There has therefore been a big chance, for in the SWS survey in
September 76 percent said they did not think the election outcome
would make a difference for the Philippines.
What we Filipinos at home and Fil-Americans in
the USA think differ a lot. One poll showed Fil-Ams choosing Obama
over McCain 4 to 1. Another survey showed 35 percent of Fil-Ams
surveyed were for Obama and 29 percent were for McCain and 34
percent were undecided.
Obama: Outsourcing a kind of violence
During his campaign for the Democratic Party
nomination against Hillary Clinton, Sen. Obama—after winning the
Iowa caucus—described outsourcing in his speech as “a form of
violence similar to the Virginia Tech killings.” In another
occasion he spoke of “the violence on men and women who have
worked all their lives and suddenly have the rug pulled out from
under them because their job is moved to another country.”
Will President Obama be the protectionist that
he has declared himself to be when talking to the unions and poor
Americans?
If he would be, then the Philippine
government—and those of the other Asean countries, as well as
Indian and Chinese—must work to persuade him that if he wishes
America to continue being a major industrial and commercial power,
he must change his ideology and support the Reaganite American
policy of economic globalization.
American protectionism will certainly diminish
it faster than those world leaders who wish to clip the US eagle’s
wings in a multipolar world can ever achieve in a century.
Inspiration to Moros and young Filipinos
His success is inspiring Moros, those who hope
that one day the Philippines will have many Moro national leaders of
the stature of Barack Obama. His having Muslim roots, a Muslim name
(Hussein) and his having studied in an Indonesian madrasah, make
Filipino Muslims identify with him.
He is also a source of inspiration to the
Filipino youth. His “Change” slogan resonates with those who
wish a major transformation to happen in Philippine politics in
2010.
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