What Obama means for Arabs and Muslims

Imagine, today is the year 1960, and you are reading a newspaper from the United States. Among the major stories, you'd find pieces about lynchings of African-Americans in the South, social norms and laws that allowed segregation in schools, restaurants, and most public areas. You would find stories on racial riots, and a thriving civil rights movement, which fought, head on, the racism against African-Americans that was so malignant and institutionalised in American culture at that time.

Now fast forward to 2008, if you are reading today's paper, chances are you will find a story on Barack Obama, the new US president-elect.

In less than 50 years, a man of African and European origin, a Christian and technically half-Muslim, is elected into the greatest seat of power in the US, and therefore an African-American will be heading, what in our current history, is the most powerful nation on earth.

I believe for all of us, the election of Obama, is a testament to the great potential and resilience of mature democratic systems, and active civil societies.

For Americans, Obama represents a new hope, because most of the world would agree, that America is at the cross roads. The legacy Obama will inherit from the current US President George W. Bush is a turbulent one, and the policies that the Obama administration will adopt, will shape America's place in the world in the decades to come.

But still, exactly what does Barack Obama mean for us, as Emiratis, as Arabs, and as Muslims?

Well before I answer that question, I'd like to talk about Bush, and his legacy. I remember meeting President Bush during his visit to Dubai in January of this year.

Roundtable discussion

During our roundtable discussion with him, one of the participants asked him about the financial tremors that the US market appeared to be facing, and I distinctly remember him answering with so much certainty, that there is absolutely no problem, and he refused to even entertain the word '"recession".

And here we are in December of the same year, with America facing "an economic tsunami", and with the world talking about the need to re-visit the global economic order, and with Bush saying he is sorry about the economy.

This inability to heed the signs of the onslaught of an economic crisis or rather a disengagement from the Bush administration towards certain realities, is just a reflection of a wider weakness which taints the Bush legacy. This, in addition to the Bush administration's inability to grasp the complexity of issues such as the failure of the simplistic ideology that forces Western democratic models of governance onto societies, is the way forward. Or the Bush administration's unwillingness to reverse failing policies, such as the US's staunch stance on non-negotiations with Iran and Cuba.

Or Bush's unwillingness to realise that Guantanamo hasn't cracked down on terrorism, if anything its cracked down on the US's judicial system and its civil liberties. Or Bush's failure to respect international law, or to lead the world order through dialogue and diplomacy, rather than continuously opting and rushing to military solutions, which end up destroying infrastructure and lives, but do nothing not reform societies or extremist ideologies .

During the World Economic Forum in Dubai last month, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, stood up and said you can't solve problems through bombs, and that he hoped the new US president-elect would see that.

I don't believe that American foreign policy will drastically shift, as it is institutionalised, but in the face of a changing world, rigid institutions and ideologies become obsolete, so maybe president-elect Obama will understand that.

Obama has already promised to close Guantanamo. He has promised to eventually withdraw troops from Iraq and has promised a "new American dawn", which we have to wait and see.

So what does Obama mean for us?

In reality, Obama doesn't mean much for us. Yes, we sincerely hope that he will learn from Bush's mistakes, and engage in aggressive diplomacy and dialogue. That he will understand forcing foreign ideologies onto people will not reform a region. If anything, we hope to see a wise America.

We intend to continue to build on the long-standing partnership that we have with the United States, and will ensure that it continues to be solid and mutually beneficial.

We don't expect the US administration to solve our challenges for us, the question of Palestine, Iraq, Iran's nuclear weapons, our occupied islands, the economic crunch, political participation, these are all issues that we, as Emiratis, that we as Arabs and Muslims, have to work on ourselves with much vision and diligence.

In the final analysis, the solutions to our region's most pressing issues lie within our region, they lie with our leadership, and they lie with our people.

Najla Al Awadhi is a member of the Federal National Council, Deputy CEO Dubai Media Incorporated and General Manager of Dubai One TV.