To Pander, or Not To
Is that the existential question? There’s been much made of recent comments by Obama advisers that came back to bite them. Economic adviser Goolsbee talked to the Canadian Consulate in Chicago regarding NAFTA, Samatha Power told a UK journalist that Hillary was a “monster.” Both learned the hard way that campaign advisers are fair game in this overheated contest.
I worry that the tone of this campaign will get uglier and every comment will get such scrutiny and opposition spin treatment (which is in turn picked up by the press) that the quality of public debate will suffer. If Benjamin Barber is right (see Desa Philadelphia’s post below) in saying that the candidates can no longer discuss candidly trade and other issues, and candidates’ advisers are chastened not to speak out, we will be left not with a campaign but a race to the least common denominator of politics: pandering. And then we will get the kind of thoughtless and superficial policies in the next President that the public now rightly condemns.
The good thing about the campaign for the U.S. Presidency is that it is getting unprecedented attention both at home and abroad. The not so good thing is that, because of what used to be known as the “CNN factor” (now “Youtube” and the Blogosphere), media reaction is instantaneous, unfiltered, “raw.” NPR is doing a good job of taking a more distanced, nuanced view of how the world sees the U.S. campaign. Its dispatches from Iraq, South Africa, China and Britain can be accessed here. I highly recommend them. I will also be heading to Europe in the coming days and will be trying to gauge foreign perspectives on the race and sharing them with readers here.
Given the pressures on candidates to pander, it may very well be that the best place now to observe the campaign is from a distance.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:55 am
I was reading an article in publicdiplomacy.foreignpolicyblogs.com on Senator Obama and Senator Hillary and their dash to the White house with occasional mud-slinging at each other. I am not from the US but I am following the campaign trail with interest as it affects all of us on planet earth. How? Because we are now live in a uni-polar world; the US makes the rules, whether people like it or not. Without going into that debate, the younger generation is perhaps betting on change, be it Obama or Hillary in the US. Being from the younger general, I am sharing a vision for the future and hope these candidates can trickle some of the ideas into their own-selves and their organizational persona/culture. I have presented the following issues by reviewing the US and the Western dominance; however, each country and its citizens can promote their own vision by aligning with or taking stock from the following points.
1. Politics of the old has to be buried. We want honesty to gallop in with style.
2. Poverty has to be addressed by checking greed’s ugly, extortionist and hegemonic control over economy. I am not suggesting of doing away with capitalism. I am suggesting responsible capitalism. Let us put the value of life, education and ethics first and then plan the pieces of the puzzle. Some permutation and combination will show us the right levers to push forth for a better and more productive growth of humanity.
3. Science education and education on liberty, rationality and logic have to be streamlined and strengthened. The US education has to be responsible and inclusive of diversity (same goes with other countries that have diversity in population). It is no longer apt to learn about the glories of the white race; time has come to re-design the knowledge capture and dissemination process. Education has to be gender and ethnicity neutral with special provision for religious groups and segments. I must emphasize that religion should not be part of statecraft but a domain of the private space. Why? Reasons are aplenty. Any sensible person can do a small homework and see chaos, depravation and fighting stemming from religious fervors and sentiments (I am in no way saying that freedom to practice religion has to be controlled or stopped). Everyone thinks that they are the chosen people and work accordingly. Knowingly or unknowingly, this creates the first rift in human habitation and interaction. Therefore, religion with all its splendor, glory and magnificence has to be practiced within one’s personal domain. It is a sensitive area and, therefore, we have to address the issue with respect.
4. Knowledge frontiers have to be re-designed and its boundaries reset. The institutions of higher learning, especially the seats of knowledge creation both in the scientific and societal dimensions are clustered in the West. I believe it is in the best interest of planet earth not to continue in that direction. Peace and prosperity cannot be ordained through such an un-equal system of knowledge innovation, sharing and flow. The issue of ‘haves and have-nots’ can never be addressed this way. Fundamental shift in thinking and out-side the box perspectives have to be injected. Education has to be pro-poor and driven by practical ground reality.
5. The UN headquarters are almost in the Western countries. This is a ludicrous proposition to my mind. I can simply say that if 6 or 7 of these large entities are moved to Africa, Asia and Central America with fair representation from these countries then the development paradigm would have bagn to be addressed partly. We, the smaller countries, would not be in need of million dollars consultants all the time to share their wisdom because the problem would have begun to rectify with this time bound but audacious shift. I am absolutely for this change and let us no more waste on useless research to explore the cost benefits of such a move. It may be an unpopular decision and, therefore, researching by the same folks - the Westerners - will be faulty and biased, so we should not walk in that direction. A bold decision has to be taken and the process of advocacy at the citizen’s and global specter has to be initiated.
6. The financial, corporate and media capitals of the world are again in the Western enclaves. These have to be re-positioned globally with the thrust of relocation to the poorer segments of the world. The UN may begin a global campaign for this monumental shift. The West and East talk about inclusion without identifying the real reasons why inclusion is not happening. I attempt at connecting you to the roots; therefore, let us move
in designing the new future state of the world. It is possible and what we need is global awareness, acceptance and political will. Most importantly, we need to understand that a flawed system will eventually correct, so why continue to walk against the stream? You can never bring peace and prosperity and neither can you legislate these notions sitting on a pile of misconstrued concepts.
The US socio-politico legislation in Iraq is a brilliant case of failure at addressing point six mentioned above. Lee Hamilton recently spoke of a concerted effort at creating a rational policy framework by US for Iraq and spoke of finding unifying leadership while voicing skepticism in the present leadership in Iraq being sectarian. Indeed, Iraq’s leadership had been sectarian and, if I may say, righting a situation with a policy that had
been flawed at conception makes the task all the more difficult. I am referring to the US intervention in Iraq on the pretext of exposing the WMD (which to date could not be found). Diplomacy for a protracted period could have helped to situate Iraq and planet earth in a congenial atmosphere. Millions of lives and billions of dollars could have been
ploughed into nurture and education; the present day global chaos, economic disfunctionality, runaway price spiral on gasoline and on essential goods and sporadic terrorists’ attacked could have been surely averted. These realities are to be addressed and war and media hype have to be shunned. Once again the magic hat of responsibility becomes the crucial instrument for world that we live in. The leaders of the world,
especially the US, need to begin a dialog for the common welfare of all and only then progress and peace will reign supreme.
Lastly, socially responsible citizens of Bangladesh and the universe should commit to advocating a peaceful world thorough respecting the institution of dialog for harmonious and equitable living in all matters and understand at heart that unless we vision and work toward such a destination pandemonium may result.
Ziaur Rahman, IITM, luckytoaccess@yahoo.com