A harsh new world for new president

Overnight on Tuesday night in Washington, Barack Obama entered office to do a job that has multiplied in its complexity and contradictions even in the 10 weeks since his election.

In the United States as in most industrial countries, recession and joblessness have deepened as dwindling capital and spending constrict local commerce and international trade.

Palestine was dormant when Obama won his famous victory; now, Gaza is his introduction to an unforgiving world of power-dominance in which he must tread carefully to be of help.

For the next few months, at least in the US, the people are entitled to celebrate their nation's new, higher level of emancipation. Obama will no doubt be buoyed by the favorable ratings and the pride Americans have in electing a man unique not only for his ancestry, but also for his mental energy and a personal quality that is close to inspirational.

The last bit remains to be proved, but Americans in their present mood are generous. Historical comparisons can be revelatory. Many compare him to John F. Kennedy for the outlier frisson that is generated once in a long while by an audacious political prospect. Obama himself has pitched his spiritual muse at a far loftier level, in the name of Abraham Lincoln, for the healing and transformations Lincoln brought to 19th century US.

That is for the future to reveal itself - and Obama must already be feeling humbled by the tasks at hand. The most urgent business is how to get the US out of its financial and economic rut. Until the US does so, most of its economic partners will languish.

His first tools, a stimulus package of $825 billion and the second tranche of $350 billion to stabilize the financial sector, may seem a lot. A poll found that most Americans do not expect improvement in the economy for at least two years.

If Obama did not regard this grace period as a comfort, that is good news. Next, hopes are placed on him to make the world less tense than it has been under his predecessor's watch. His intent to engage states like Iran is tactically sound, but he should also show quickly his foresight in collaborating with the friendlier revivalist nations, China and Russia. And Palestine? The Arabs have waited long for a US leader who is an objective mediator, one who is prepared to sometimes say "no" to Israel.

Will Obama be the one? These are for starters, but what a prelude. The buffer of goodwill he has just may come in useful.

The Straits Times/Asia News Network

(China Daily 01/22/2009 page9)