For all of us

As a young boy growing up in Singapore in the 1980s, I looked up to the United States of America. It was the land of innovation, epitomised at that time through the McDonalds Big Mac and Michael Jackson’s Thriller album. It was the country of ideals, which stood firm and stared down the “evil” communist empire led by the Soviet Union. Superman - the comics and the Christopher Reeve movies - reinforced the concept of “Truth, justice and the American Way”. I bought it hook, line and sinker.

Naturally, my views became more nuanced as I grew up. I was more aware of the world and how it operated, and the USA’s faults became clearer. Its problems with racial issues, its arrogance that comes with power, and over the last eight years George Bush’s politics and policies that has alienated the world.

In truth, over the last eight years, the USA has squandered an opportunity that came out of a horrific act - the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 - to unite the world against fundamentalism of all kind. Instead, its subsequent policies have become the byword for unilateralism and ridicule.

Yet, I still admire the USA. No other country in the world has as its national ideal the belief that anyone has the opportunity to be successful if you are willing to try hard enough. The evidence is clear in the number of great athletes, entertainers and statesmen that the country has produced. Many laugh at the phrase that there is simply no other country like the USA, but there is a truth to that statement.

That belief was reinforced when I visited the country a few years ago. I was in awe as I stood in New York, a city of limitless opportunities. From the Wall Street bankers to the subway buskers, optimism was evident throughout. Despite travelling all over the world, no other city quite matches up for me.

I went to Texas, where cities like Houston and San Antonio showed me another part of America. Big religion, big meals and big people are a part of the country’s fabric. I was lucky enough to meet some of the nicest people in the country in these places.

In Washington DC, I was moved by the magnificence of the memorial to one of my heroes, Abraham Lincoln, where another hero of mine, Martin Luther King, delivered a famous address on race 40 years ago.
 
Street protestors, ordinary folk and business leaders, everyone had their place in this country. There is little wonder that so many millions try to make it to that country legally and illegally, and many more view it as a great beacon of hope.

Americans now have the opportunity to get their country back on track. Their great nation is not just the world’s policeman, it is also the moral compass. What happens there affects all of us and that means that the USA cannot be insular. It must be international.

Tomorrow, Americans will be forced to make a tough choice between John McCain and Barack Obama for their President. Mr McCain is a real hero, someone who offers sensible trade polices that will have a positive impact on someone like me thousands of miles away. He has a track record of taking on the establishment when needed.
 
Unfortunately, his Strait Talk Express that was refreshing eight years ago is now stale. That has now been replaced by a pandering to the Republican Party’s extreme right conservative base, something that scares me. This was the same party that rejected him eight years ago for Mr Bush. If he had really wanted to change the system, he should have challenged Mr Bush once again in the Republican primaries four years ago. In 2008, Mr McCain’s time is now past.

The future belongs to Mr Obama. He is a rare politician who can galvanise millions to his cause. His campaign began with a few volunteers and a small desk, and has turned into a movement has now grown into the largest grassroots organisation in the USA.

He is more likely to bring together most of the country’s differing views, although there will remain a section that will not distrust him because of race, his middle name, and the fear that some Republicans have managed to sow that he is an un-American politician who hangs out with terrorists.
 
Globally, he is wildly popular. He is probably the only person who could make the world fall in love with America again. If he loses, the USA risks further alienation from the rest of the world.

Critics point to his thin resume, but they said the same thing about Abraham Lincoln when he was running for the office. Mr Obama has assembled a sound team of economic, social and defence advisers. But he is his own man, as he showed in the way he ran his campaign. He is politically savvy - he beat the Clinton election machine, arguable the biggest bruisers in American politics, and is on the verge of stopping a Republican machine that once looked invincible.

I have often debated with friends on whether the US presidential elections should be opened up to the world. After all, that decision has an impact on all of us. It is, however, for the Americans and them alone to decide. They will make a choice after what is possibly the toughest democratic political contest in the world, in which the candidates undergo two years of scrutiny in primaries and the presidential elections before the big day.

For all of us, for themselves, for the American way, I hope that their choice is Barack Obama.