Wednesday, November 05, 2008

The Unprecedented Victory

I am blown away! Americans finally make the right decision. We should give them credit for this historic event. To make Obama as their president, they should earn great respect from people around the world who had disliked Americans over the past 8 years. After all, we all can learn and change.

Think about this: who would've thought that a black guy can be the president of the US when he, as a black guy, was not even allowed to vote some 40 years ago! Moreover, just around 140 years ago, the blacks in the US were slaves. What an overwhelming achievement!

I am just wondering if the same thing can actually happen in Indonesia. Will Indonesians be willing to look beyond the labels (be it race, ethnicity, sex or even religion)in the coming election? Will Indonesians choose capability over ethnicity or religion?

I want to believe that. But it's so hard. Some of them are thinking only for their own interests. Look at that stupid porn law among other things.

Oh, how fragile hope is. But Obama has shown us otherwise. I should dare to dream that Indonesians someday will take a great leap as Americans did today.

Thanks to you, Barack Obama! Thanks to your audacious hope.

2 comments:

Dprabo said...

I wouldn't underestimate our capacity to embrace changes. We are more accustomed to pluralism and we never had racial segregation like in the US. In fact changes are already happening at our top political levels. We now have MPs and cabinet members of Chinese ethnic background and a non-Javanese veep.

reslian said...

It's good to hear some optimism. Hm ... you are right. We even had a woman as president though it was her family name that helped her elected.

Is non-javanese, non muslim president likely to happen in Indonesia say in 20 years or 30 years?