What Obama presidency means to you

SINGAPOREANS, especially younger ones, are excited by the triumph of Democrat Barack Obama in Tuesday's United States presidential election.

There is also a feeling that Mr Obama, more than other presidents, has an affinity for this region - he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia and has an Indonesia-born half-sister who's married to a Chinese.

But it is also often said that a Republican president is better for Asia, especially as he is more likely to be in favour of free trade. There is definite anxiety in Asia that Washington under Mr Obama will embrace more protectionist trade measures.

Mr Obama cannot undo free-trade initiatives signed by previous presidents, 'which would inhibit any significant shift towards protectionism under president-elect Obama', said Dr Alan Chong, assistant professor at the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore.

Also, compared to his vanquished rival, Republican John McCain, Mr Obama is 'generally seen as being more willing to take aggressive fiscal-stimulus measures' to fight economic woes, said Citigroup economist Kit Wei Zheng.

This 'may help to cushion the depth and duration of the likely US recession', he added.

And given the importance of the US economy to Asia and Singapore, this sounds like reason to cheer.

But a question mark may hang over the issue of human rights.

Democratic presidents have been more likely to pursue a human- rights agenda, noted Dr Chong, and Mr Obama may sometimes seem to be speaking of 'using human rights as a centrepiece for his foreign policy'.

If so, should another Michael Fay or Christopher Lingle affair blow up, Singapore could be in for rough weather, he noted.