Reception of the Obama Candidacy in Bangladesh

Khondaker M. Kabir

People all over the world are eagerly watching as Americans prepare to elect their next president. The issue has become more interesting following the results of the primary selection process. Bangladesh, like many other countries, will be affected by the new leadership in the U.S. in a number of ways and people in this part of the world are equally excited about the issues. In Bangladesh, there are two groups most interested in the U.S. presidential election: one that will be directly affected by the outcome consists of those who migrated to the U.S. and have family in Bangladesh waiting for clearance to join them. The other group indirectly affected by the election are those who will be affected by future decisions of the U.S. administration in different fields, including trade and bilateral relations. People in Bangladesh are following the U.S. presidential race, listening to the views and pledges of the presidential candidates, debates, comments of the camps and closely watching polling results. It merits emphasis that Bangladeshi citizens overwhelmingly support Obama. Hillary Clinton has been a familiar name in the country and considered a close supporter of Bangladesh, having visited Dhaka many times as an old classmate of the Nobel laureate Dr. Yunus. But when Obama emerged as winner of the Democratic primaries, most Clinton supporters in Bangladesh became Obama supporters.

In Bangladesh, there have not been many methodologically sound surveys or polls on the U.S. presidential race. So it may be unwarranted to predict the outcome of the election. The methodology of reviewing the Obama phenomenon in Bangladesh has been soliciting opinions of selected groups, in informal gatherings, family discussions, friendly exchange of views; compiling articles appearing in the newspapers and magazines, correspondences with friends and relatives in the U.S.; and collecting clippings from the Internet and international news media. The results are decidedly in favor of Obama.

Bangladeshis with academic interests in the U.S. presidential election are regularly monitoring American polls. At the time of this writing, Obama is favored by fifty-three percent of Americans while McCain’s support appears to be about thirty-nine percent. Most Bangladeshis interviewed observed that McCain, being a Bush protégé, would not be able to rise above the opposition over the incumbent president. Any current reference in Bangladesh to the candidacy of the future American president would place Obama as the decided favorite. McCain has chosen foreign policy as an issue in which Obama purportedly has no experience. Against this backdrop, Obama has assembled three hundred foreign policy experts. Dividing the world into twenty regions on different issues, they are working on different strategies. McCain seems to be imprecisely engaged in foreign policy; his seventy-five experts are working with less than desired coordination. The strategy of his foreign policy groups revolves around denouncing Obama’s statements on the Middle East and Afghanistan, pointing out his inexperience in foreign policy, and publishing cartoon pictures depicting him as funny looking. These efforts have actually benefited Obama in Bangladeshi public opinion. McCain has been ranked low on tolerance. Bangladeshi citizens often assert that the world has been waiting for a “wizard,” like Obama, who can wipe out the dark cloud of world problems while simultaneously being the ray of hope for the worried western world.

Bangladesh would benefit from Obama’s policies of compromising with the rest of the world. Without improvements to the environment, one third of Bangladesh will be submerged under the Bay of Bengal due to increasing sea levels resulting from global warming. An Obama administration favoring global environmental safeguards will be helpful for Bangladesh. As to food and fuel security, the current trends reflecting fuel deficiencies will threaten the lives of 150 million people along with others elsewhere if no cooperative measures are taken to make these items available at affordable prices. The U.S. stand on these issues will go a long way to help Third World countries including Bangladesh. Since Bangladesh is overdependent on its exports of ready-made garments, any restriction thereon to the markets of U.S. would be hazardous. While peace initiatives by the U.S. in the Middle East will enable Bangladeshis to migrate toward traditional labor markets in Arab countries; favorable policies will also help migration by skilled Bangladeshi. Furthermore, for Bangladeshi interested in migration to the U.S., Obama’s stand has been positive. His pledge to reduce the waiting period for dependents has been applauded by many families. Obama’s proposal for fair treatment for immigrants from all places, while putting the defaulters at the end of the line, has been considered just for illegal immigrants. Bangladesh has always opposed terrorism. My country is predominately Muslim with no fundamentalist tendencies. Though U.S. presidential administrations have regarded this country as moderate Muslim, there have been marked attempts by vested interest groups in the U.S. to tarnish the image of Bangladesh by characterizing it as a failed country. Due to its strategic geopolitical location, Bangladesh could easily become a victim of economic and military exploitation. If U.S. assistance to Bangladesh in socioeconomic development and disaster management were to be enhanced, this could presage an American policy of supporting global humanity.

Obama is for change in the U.S. and abroad. Peace in the Middle East will usher a “new horizon,” with the promise of new lives for hundreds and thousands of ill-fated people. My people expect such change from Obama, who believed that the Iraq “[W]ar was a tragic mistake and it should never have been authorized and should have never been waged.” Obama has chosen the path of “what the next president has to do is not just tell the American people what they want to hear, but what they need to hear.” As a student at Columbia University, Obama was an environmental activist; he now believes “environmentalism is not an upper income issue, it is not a black issue, it is not a south or a north or an east or a west issue. It is an issue that all of us have a stake in.” These ideas from Obama are going to yield positive results for Bangladeshis in their primary concerns—ecological survival.

The objective of Obama’s July 2008 trip abroad was to solicit appreciation of his foreign policy skills. The success of the trip is clear. Presidents and prime ministers warmly greeted him. He also received huge responses from the media on both sides of the Atlantic. Obama’s trip to Europe and the Middle East has changed the perception of many who were in doubt about his capability to handle delicate issues abroad. 

Khondaker M. Kabir is a physician and social activist in Bangladesh.