Obama and change

Re : "Marching forth," by Zafar Sobhan (Feb. 29).
After years of Bush dynastic rule, few Americans are interested in a Clinton dynastic rule. America is considered as the world's greatest democracy and rightly so. This is a country founded on the revolt against the British imperial rule. It was also a revolt against privilege and an affirmation of the principles of democracy as envisaged by ancient Athenians. Ancient Athenians, who invented democracy, believed that ordinary people must have a say in the government and the aristocrats and elites must not be allowed to govern them by virtue of their birth and status.
Both U.S. President George W. Bush and Senator Hillary Clinton are products of privilege and "family ties." It is unthinkable that Bush would be president without President George H.W. Bush as his father. Similarly, Hillary Clinton would not be here if she were not the wife of President Bill Clinton. They owe their political rise to their father and husband. This is not much different from Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia in Bangladesh and Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. But this is understandable for such poor countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan where women are so underprivileged that they need a boost from their family ties. But for the world's richest and most advanced country, where women are free to follow their own careers, this will be the greatest shame.
Britain's Margaret Thatcher and Germany's Angela Merkel rose to their top positions on their own rights. Their fathers or husbands played no role in their rise to power. Mrs. Clinton's greatest asset is her husband and it is also her greatest liability and her nomination will only galvanise the Republican Party and will lead to inevitable defeat of the Democratic candidate. Hillary Clinton's experience as First Lady will be of no significance to Senator John McCain's long experience both as a Senator and a war hero. Mrs. Clinton will not have the slightest chance against Senator John McCain.
Senator Barack Obama is a clear departure from this politics of privilege. Son of a Kenyan black father and a Kansas white mother, he was brought up by his mother as his father left when he was only 2 years old. By hard work and pure brilliance, he rose to become a successful corporate lawyer, then a Illinois Senator and a U.S. Senator. His life bears a striking resemblance to another Illinois Senator Abraham Lincoln who rose from a humble beginning to become the greatest president of America. Obama's story is a success story of personal struggle and hard work and not any family ties that helped both George Bush and Hillary Clinton to launch their political careers.
But most importantly, Senator Barack Obama symbolises the change from the extreme partisan politics in America. He has also galvanised younger Americans who are extremely apathetic towards politics. If Mrs. Clinton, representing the old Democratic henchmen, is nominated, the young generation will stay at home, letting the Democrats lose a new constituency.
Moreover, Barack Obama as president of the United States is also promising a new world order in which America will work with other nations to ensure global stability. For too long, the Bush administration pursued a chimera of a world view composed in equal parts of Hobsonian darkness of fighting the so-called axis of evil and a utopian remake of the world by bringing democracy at gunpoint. Both have failed. The world now needs a new leadership in which fear and intimidation will play a lesser role.