After the Obama Euphoria
Azly Rahman
We need to move beyond the Obama episode; “beyond those presidential selfies and we-fies”.
US President Barack Obama left Malaysia, and was greeted by protests in the Philippines unwelcoming any attempt to have the American empire reincarnate its military bases ala Subik Bay and Clark that became a rallying point to bring the Marcos dictatorship down, forcing even Imelda Marcos to flee with some of her shoes.
But for Malaysia, the nation has to do a quick assessment of what it saw in the president of seemingly the most powerful president on Earth – what the visit was about, beyond the charm and the great oratorical skills of the man. Obama left for the Philippines to ensure that the US military presence is made more prominent.
Obama’s visit to Malaysian was to twist the arm of Najib Abdul Razak to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) in order for the new trade block or ‘Nafta on steroids’ to be emerge as the most comprehensive trade pact and tool of domination in the history of modern global economics.
The beneficiaries will of course be the US Chamber of Commerce (600 corporations) behind it, containing the influence of China in the region. The ‘fast-track’ nature of the TPPA (by-passing Congressional deliberation) makes it a globally dangerous deal of a mission to enslave nations.
Beyond the charm, the ‘selfies’ or rather the ‘we-fies’ with Prime Minister Najib; a selfie-wefie of a pathology of global elites getting in tune with popular culture of cyber-punkism, because it is the “in thing” to do – like hash-tagging, un-friending, and hacking amongst nations.
Beyond these one must again go back to the history of America as a military-industrial complex, a Ben Franklin-America gone globally berserk to dominate the world, and to further push the agenda left by George W Bush for a Newer American Century of drone attacks, national security surveillance, continued toppling of democratically-elected regimes, protection of the state of Israel, denying vote for a Palestinian state, US involvement in Syria vis-a viz al-Qaeda, continuing refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol, and a host of other hypocritical act that confuses the world what actually America is as inscribed in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Obama, as any other president be they from the either-or oligopolic regime of Democrats or Republicans only serve one group: the one percent of the corporate ruling elite who finances politicians who then, given proper funding via campaign financing, become the president that will further carry of the agenda of America the Oligopoly, America the Global Corporate Entity who uses realpolitik, soft and raw power to dominate nations such as Malaysia.
I think these are what Malaysians need to come back to, by way of understanding the empire they are dealing with, when the Obama euphoria is over.
