Maravi

Nkama's personal impressions of Obama

Nkama's personal impressions of Obama
By Isaac Nkama
Sunday June 08, 2008 [04:00]

I first met Senator Barack Obama in August, 2006 – when it was already clear that he was going to be running for the US Presidency, in my capacity as a member of the National Council of the South African Institute of International Affairs. It was evident to my colleagues and I over 2 years earlier that he would be extremely influential in US and world politics. The National Council of the Institute comprises 16 individuals from the business and international affairs arena in South Africa, who have some kind of involvement in international affairs.

While most are South Africans, there are a few who are based in South Africa but come from other countries. Some members of the National Council include Jonathan Oppenheimer – grandson of De Beers and Anglo-American founder Harry Oppenheimer and heir to the Oppenheimer Dynasty; Fred Phaswana – Chairman of Anglo-American South Africa; Moeletsi Mbeki – businessman and younger brother of President Mbeki; Elizabeth Bradley – Chairperson of and the major shareholder in Toyota Manufacturing South Africa; Michael Spicer – the Chief Executive of Business Leadership South Africa and Professor Eltie Links – South Africa’s former Ambassador to the EU. The legendary late Harry Oppenheimer is a former member of the National Council, and was its Chairman for 10 years.

Of the many aspects of international affairs that the National Council of the Institute is involved in are continuous interactions with world leaders on a variety of issues. Often, these interactions are done outside of the glare of the public – and very rarely is a statement issued. On a few occasions, when it is deemed to be in the public interest – the National Council does at times issue public statements on some matters. Other than public addresses, the National Council’s interaction with leaders happens quietly and without any publicity. Often, when leaders know that their discussions will be private, they become more open and sincere in their discussions. This makes it a lot easier for the National Council to understand certain situations, and to quietly provide input for the consideration of the respective leaders.

In this way, it has even become possible to second officials to certain countries to prepare them for the African Peer Review Mechanism and give them an honest assessment on how they will fare when the review is done – as well as the areas that they need to improve on in order to be ready.

Also the Institute annually hosts a strategic session with 40 political, business and security leaders from around the world. This is hosted over a 4-day period in the desert of the Northern Cape Province, the purpose of which is to engage with these leaders over a variety of issues affecting or relating to the continent, and the isolated selection of the venue is to dialogue without disturbance.

A small number of current and former African Heads of State have participated, including senior government, business and security leaders, advisors and researchers from within and outside of the continent. To make it as productive as possible, the dress code is extra casual for the entire 4 days, with jeans and shorts being the preferred mode of dress.

For the years that it has been running, it has proven to be an extremely useful model of engaging, influencing and learning from one another. And because of the setting being so informal, discussing, eating and sleeping together over the 4-day period, relations made there are usually bonding and lasting, and contact amongst participants is maintained long after parting.
First Meeting with Obama

An invitation was sent to Senator Barack Obama to dialogue with us, as it was clear to the National Council that he was going to be a leader of world influence. He would be traveling to South Africa, Kenya and Sudan. While the Head Office of the Institute is in Johannesburg, one of the Institute’s branches is in Cape Town, and it was agreed to host him there.

He would first give a public lecture which the institute organised, and then naturally being hosted by the Institute afterwards. My colleagues on the National Council asked me to fly to Cape Town to host him on behalf of the National Council.

After the public lecture – he, I and one other colleague went into a private room that had been prepared for our discussions. Without question, my main interests – naturally, were his views on a variety of intra-African issues and challenges. Multilateral issues that have some form of influence on Africa, his views on a number of world issues ranging from health to world trade were also a subject of my interest. After all, this was going to be the world’s most powerful man, who would make history by either being the first Black President of the US – or the first real serious contender.

It was therefore extremely important to understand his thinking and opinions, and create the platform and rapport to maintain the contact for the days ahead.
He is an extremely impressive man. My very first impression was the extent of his common courtesy on even the most minor of issues, a perfect gentleman. It does not take long to realise the extent of his intelligence, and that he has an extremely sharp mind. But what I liked about him most was his extremely impressive grasp of world issues.

He has the ability to be firm on a specific point, yet his kind of firmness is laced in very polished diplomacy. I was stricken by the fact that he was able to touch on several sensitive issues affecting Africa, but do it in such a manner that you hear his point – and not his criticism. He touched on the various policies on HIV/AIDS in Africa – and was highly uncomplimentary of those of certain countries, but in an extremely respectful manner. Corruption and education in the technical and scientific areas are parts that seemed to be very close to him – as he expanded quite a lot on them. He felt particularly strong about what he termed as “Africa’s perpetual blame on colonialism” for many things, and pointed out the fact that “colonialism has nothing to do with corruption,” and went on to expand on how this retards development.
Earlier on during his public lecture, he had been equally forthright on these and other issues.

I was forced to concede on a number of issues that he made, which I felt would be difficult to defend or argue against. Not missing the opportunity in this first meeting, I urged him to put Africa on the forefront of his development agenda – and that the continent and the US can do a lot more. I pointed out to the imbalances created by several trade issues – and that various forms of domestic subsidies – including agricultural, were harming Africa’s competitiveness in that very basic area of economic activity.

He is an extremely attentive listener, and has an excellent manner of selecting the combination of his words – and thus communicates both easily and effectively.

After that initial meeting, I didn’t get the impression that I was speaking to an African – American Senator, but to an American Senator. Clearly, playing the race card with him is not going to work. Rather, he seeks to reason on a substantive level – as opposed to aspects of nostalgia.

Parallels with Colin Powell
Incidentally, I had found very similar parallels between him and former US Secretary of State Colin Powell – whom my colleague on the National Council Fred Phaswana and I had the honour of hosting at the Institute in May 2001 – not long after he was appointed as Secretary of State. His visit to the Institute was the only appointment he had outside of government during his unusually brief visit to South Africa, and we were deeply honoured that he accepted our invitation. Like Obama, Powell too is a first-generation American, as his parents were immigrants from Jamaica. Both are extremely articulate, communicate very well and give me the distinct impression of being very principled men. Powell was the first Black person in the US to have a serious prospect of running for either president or vice-president.

The only real differences I could point to are that while Obama is warm and charismatic, Powell is warm and fatherly in his interactions. Both are highly intelligent. While I experienced both to be equally warm, Obama smiles a lot more, but it is extremely difficult not to like or respect Powell who has a very fatherly demeanour.

After the nomination – Challenges of the Presidential Race
Obama is the frontrunner in the Democratic Party and he is in all likelihood going to be nominated as his party’s nominee for the presidential race.
The next five months to November promise to be extremely gruelling, as he faces a number of challenges.

First amongst these is that recent research has shown that while the US has been divided on a number of multilateral issues in the past – especially Iraq, these issues will become less of an electoral issue, and that economic and other domestic issues will now dominate the campaign. While some of his many supporters had hoped to gain from the ill-feelings felt by some on the Iraq issue – domestic US media statistics show that over the past few weeks, Iraq has only occupied 3 per cent of the total space of coverage in the US media. As an electoral tool, the Iraq issue will not be nearly as potent for the Democrats as it would have been 12 months ago. Perhaps ‘Iraq fatigue’ has set in.

The other major challenge is the selection of a Vice-Presidential running mate, as this will be important to keep the party united – and appeal to those voters who are undecided. Given the very small margin and delegates by which he led Hillary Clinton by, it would seem to be a logical choice for him to invite her as his running mate. This, while outwardly appearing logical, also has its dangers. Should he offer her the option, and she declines – then it would bode ill for him from those Democratic Party delegates that so strongly supported her.

This, he can’t afford to do. Alienating her would be great news for his presumed competitor, Republican Senator John McCain. One of the options open to him would be to involve Hillary in his search for a running mate – as this would enable her to make some input. Any running mate that she too has had an input in selecting would automatically get her endorsement – and therefore that of her delegates. More importantly, it would allow for her to express an interest in the vice-presidency. That way, he can create the platform for her to avail herself – without the risk of her rejecting a direct invitation from him. This, however, is assuming that he would be comfortable with her as his vice-president, or that she would be interested in being one. Whoever he selects will be of strategic importance to the race. Whatever he decides to do, keeping a party that has just emerged from such a highly divisive and close race will be one of his key electoral challenges.

While Obama is more articulate of the two, McCain is highly experienced, and has a deep grasp of political inner workings. Having run for the nomination and lost to President George Bush two elections ago, he has the wisdom of hindsight and the benefit of having been a serious contender in the Presidential nomination before. This will no doubt be extremely useful to McCain and his strategists.

Another challenge for Obama is the fact that McCain is not an incumbent president running for re-election. What this means is that it denies him of an opportunity to criticise his opponents’ presidential record and failings on a number of issues – since McCain has none as President, but as Senator. The fewer the issues that one is able to constructively criticise an opponent on in any election is always a major handicap, as this inability now has to be substituted for something else.

Unfortunate as it may be, we cannot deny the race element in any US election – especially at the Senatorial and Presidential levels. There are those who will not vote for him not because of his policies or pronouncements, but simply because of his mixed race.
The likely outcome?

It is way too soon to anticipate the likely outcome, as there a number of issues that have not yet been concluded. Apart from both contenders having running mates, the real nature of this election has not yet evolved – as it has up to now been in intra-party process.
Despite the numerous challenges ahead for Obama, my personal impressions are that he will be an extremely formidable contender. It would take a lot to convince me that McCain was not more worried about Obama than he was of Clinton.

Isaac Nkama, a Zambian business executive based in South Africa, is a member of the Governing Council of the South African Institute of International Affairs; a member of the Executive Committee of the Presidential Black Business Working Group; a member of the Presidential Joint Working Group; a member of the Executive Committee of the Black Business Executives Circle and a Commercial Member of the Tax Court. He writes in his personal capacity.

posted by MrK @ 5:10 AM