NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Bernama) — Although Asians living in the US have shown little interest in the fortunes of the Republican candidates in the ongoing presidential race, their interest in the two prominent Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and rival Barack Obama, has been high-itched.
Suhasihni Doraiswamy, a second generation Malaysian Indian from Penang, who is working as an intern in New York’s downtown financial district, calls herself a complete Hilary fan who would give her vote to the former First Lady.
Doraiswamy, 23, holds a US passport which entitles her to cast the ballot in the presidential election in November this year.
“This will be the first time I will be voting. I have never voted before,” she told Bernama while discussing Super Tuesday which produced a neck-to-neck race between Clinton and Obama.
Indeed, Super Tuesday showed that the race between the two will not be a quick sprint but a slow and long marathon race, as observed by US commentators.
Doraiswamy’s sentiments are echoed by Zang Toi, the New York-based high-profile Malaysian fashion designer from Kelantan, who created a special fashion show in honour of the visiting Sultan and Raja Perempuan of Kelantan.
Zang, a supporter of the former First Lady, told Bernama that Clinton, after eight years by the side of former US president Bill Clinton and seven years representing New York (as a senator) is clear-eyed, both about the demands of the globe’s toughest job and about using the power that comes with it.
Her celebrity status notwithstanding, Clinton is at heart, a worker in the trenches, Zang maintained, using descriptive adjectives about her encyclopedic knowledge of the issues.
He also reminded that Clinton was a key player in securing critical federal aid after the terrorist attacks of September 11 and that she had fought longer than anyone for the sickened Ground Zero workers. That’s why, she is the right choice for the Democrats, he added.
However, Obama also enjoys popularity amongst Asian voters. US experts affirm that Asian voters under 40 are likely to vote for him whereas the older voters, mostly, would cast their ballot for Clinton.
Many young Asian yuppies have been expressing their support for Obama because he is not only charismatic but also exudes confidence and has integrity.
They say that he is the most likely candidate to bring about the badly-needed change in a socio-economic environment that is rapidly deteriorating, as one female voter of Taiwanese origin put it.
“We need change for the better, we don’t need a war. The common man has concerns for such mundane things as health insurance, something that is considered a basic human right in other developed countries.
“I am convinced that Obama can address this issue,” exclaimed Jennifer Lee, a Singapore-born nurse who runs a textile import business in New York City.
Three young Chinese American city council members — Gilbert Wong, 40, Cupertino city council member; Evan Low, 23, Campbell council member; and Yiaway Yeh, 29, Palo Alto City Council member — endorsed Obama at a recent press conference at Obama’s campaign office in Palo Alto, California.
Low said Obama understood Chinese Americans, and has new ideas to reinvigorate the United States.
Indonesian immigrants in New York also favour Obama who spent his early childhood in Indonesia.
“We regard Obama as one of us because he was in Indonesia as a child and knows Indonesia,” said Indra Irawan, who runs a fast-food restaurant in New York’s Chinatown district. But she believed that both Clinton and Obama could refurbish America’s dented image abroad, particularly in Indonesia.
Filipinos, many of whom descend in the weekend on the small grocery stores and eating places which mushroom in the Jersey City area in New Jersey, are taking a wait-and-watch attitude towards the Clinton campaign.
“We want to see if she can do better than our current president Gloria Arroyo and former president Corazon Aquino,” Charles Espinosa, a Filipino computer programmer, told Bernama.
The phlegmatic Japanese community in the US has been closely monitoring the presidential race, though many Japanese express apprehensions about Clinton because her husband Bill was seen as tilting towards China at the expense of Japan.
An article written by Hillary for a foreign affairs journal, in which she described China as America’s most important bilateral relationship, has not helped matters.
Both Clinton and Obama have also been courting the financially-powerful Indian community in the United States, which is known to donate generously to both candidates. Although Obama has supporters in the Indian community in his home state Illinois, he visits Indian restaurants in Chicago and speaks eloquently about Indian food and culture.
Clinton has been speaking of the onset of a new era in Indo-US relationship, if she is elected president.
“The fact is that from globalisation and nuclear proliferation to climate change and terrorism, India matters more than ever.
“I believe our two great democracies must be strategic partners, bound together by shared values and common interests.
“As president, I will work with India to make our strong friendship even stronger, to the benefit of both nations,” she wrote this week in a first-person column that appeared in an Indian weekly paper published in New York.
But many Indians say they will not fall for her high-flowing rhetoric, that is not uncommon with aspiring presidential candidates, and would take a cool approach to Clinton because her husband was perceived as favouring China and Pakistan, at the cost of India.
She was, after all, a co-president when her husband was in the White House, according to Manish Shah, a jeweller from Mumbai with a small sales store on the east coast, though the Clintons later began what came to be known as a love affair with India, and made a high-profiled official visit to India.
Meanwhile, Obama’a war chest was filled with an astounding US$32 million (US$1 = RM3.23) alone in January, both from large donors and small Internet contributors; Clinton, according to her campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe, could raise only $13.5 million for that particular month.
At this point, it is not clear how much of that money came from Asian donors because the experts studying the inflow of cash do not make a distinction in the ethnicity of the contributors.