An open letter to Obama on US offensive against terror (Part I)

Dear Mr President,

Last week was an eventful one. You released your birth certificate to prove your eligibility and legitimacy for the presidency as a "natural born" US citizen.

In effect, you put to rest the ‘controversy’, which in your own words, was distracting "silliness" as "we’ve got better stuff to do". I couldn’t agree with you more! There are various theories and solid rationale as to why the rightwing conservatives have subjected you to such ridicule and utter silliness.

Last week also saw the grand royal wedding of Prince William to "commoner" Kate Middleton. We were told that the wedding had a global audience of two billion people. I highly doubt that. Two billion commoners watching British royals tie the note. How idle or in bondage can we commoners possibly be? With sincerity, I wish the young couple well. But again Mr President, the ‘pomp’ was quite a distraction from the "better stuff we have to do".

I overheard that Kate, being a "commoner", has a particular significance to the British commoners. The Diana we loved was actually an aristocrat. The British commoners actually see themselves in Kate and can identify with her. Ouch! What privilege or achievement is it in a modern world with a competitive dynamic to sweep a prince off his feet?

The world of fairytales characterised my early primary school days. While I dream, I am conscious we live in the real world of hard work, achievement, character and excellence. That’s why you are President of the US while neither your mother Ann Dunham nor certainly your father Barack Hussein Obama is a descendant of British royalty or American ‘aristocracy’.

While navigating through the news channels, I recall a CNN host indicating that you were not invited for the royal wedding. The reason being that the wedding was not a State function.

But you and Michelle are much or possibly more the celebrities that David Beckham and his wife Victoria are.

In fact, my friends and I concur that at present, you exemplify the heights of achievement by a commoner. While the grand Nelson Mandela is the liberation icon we revere, your ascendancy to the US presidency has inspired the quest and possibilities of our wildest dreams and aspirations.

We dare to dream even in the face of insurmountable challenges and dare to hope even when faced with unimaginable peril and all seems lost. The progressive intelligentsia and elite being commoners are inspired by heights of achievement. They identify with you in a more practical sense.

It was last week that you announced to the world that the US had killed terror mastermind Osama bin Laden. Osama hails from Saudi aristocracy and was not a commoner by any definition. He was heir to a fortune that you and I may never lay our hands on.

While details of Osama’s killings emerged, our global human rights ‘leader’, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay illustrated the audacious nature of the human rights audit. She called for a "full disclosure of the accurate facts" on Osama’s killing.

While condemning terrorism, Pillay reaffirmed the UN has "basic rules of how counter-terrorism activity has to be carried out. It has to be in compliance with international law".

It is yet another commoner who finds herself at the height of achievement. Navi Pillay prompted or inspired my four-part open letter to you on the war against terrorism in the successive weeks to come.

—The writer is a commissioner with the KNCHR.