It's not only Americans who believe they are unique. It's tacitly conceded by others as well.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said today Singapore is not likely to have a non-Chinese Prime Minister anytime soon. He said that "who votes for whom and what makes him identify with that person, these are sentiments which will not completely disappear for a long time".
Indeed, Obama's victory is like Singapore having a non-Chinese prime minister, I wrote last week in my post, Americans transcend race.
But why single out Singapore?
Singapore is better than Britain with a number of Indian and Malay ministers in government. Gordon Brown’s cabinet is all-white.The Jamaican-born attorney-general. Lady Scotland, is the only non-white who attends cabinet meetings, but she is not a cabinet member, as I mentioned in an earlier post. (But the minorities made up less than 10 percent of the UK population at the last census in 2001 – and make up more than 20 percent of the population in Singapore.)
“Institutional racism” in UK, says rights watchdog chief
"Brilliant as he is, Barack Obama would not have got into Downing Street," says Trevor Phillips, the black head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in Britain, in an interview with The Times. He says "institutional racism" would prevent a black leader from coming to power in Britain.
Now I have the answer to my question, When will the UK have its Mandela moment?
America is having a "Mandela moment", London's Observer newspaper wrote last Sunday praising Obama.
Why couldn't it happen in Britain, I asked, comparing the British and American demographics.Is it because Britain doesn't have a large ethnic minority population? They made up 7.9 percent of the total population of 58.7 million at the last census in 2001. The UK population is now estimated to be 60.9 million.
According to Phillips, “the problem is not the electorate, the problem is the machine". The political system itself.
He says it’s no coincidence that there are only 15 ethnic-minority MPs. “The parties and the unions and the think-tanks are all very happy to sign up to the general idea of advancing the cause of minorities but in practice they would like somebody else to do the business. It’s institutional racism.”
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