Though it wasn’t as jubilant as Chicago’s, or as glum as Boston’s, the
mood among spectators in Phnom Penh as the votes were tallied in yesterday’s US
presidential election was certainly energetic.
While the incumbent, President
Barack Obama, ultimately sealed the deal by a substantial margin, the customary
hours-long media build-up to the announcement had expats biting their nails.
“It was terrifying,” 29-year-old
Taryn Schwilling, a poet and Fullbright scholar in Cambodia, said shortly after
CNN called the election in Obama’s favour.
Schwilling missed the
announcement of Obama’s win, but nonetheless, she said, beer in hand at a
Democrats Abroad viewing held at Meta House, “I’m happy... So, it’s celebratory
drinking, not drown-your-sorrows drinking”.
Business consultant Sophy Pich, a
Cambodian who moved to the US as a refugee and was later granted American
citizenship, said that he, too, voted for Obama.
“He’s good for the country, and
he’s good for the rest of the world,” he said by phone, noting that the
president doesn’t treat issues as a matter of black and white.
“There’s a way of twisting arms,”
he added, speaking on the subject of diplomacy. “You have to shake the hand
first.”
At an event it hosted yesterday
morning, the US Embassy, not content to simply wait for the results from
America, staged its own mock election.
An emcee earned a wave of
laughter as she presented two stand-ins – each bearing a passing resemblance to
Obama and Romney – while announcing the results of the mock vote. Obama won,
with 80 per cent.
“We’ll talk about your post
later,” a victorious “Obama” joked as he shook hands with US Ambassador William
Todd.
For the rest of the morning,
embassy staffers, activists and invited guests milled around talking politics,
albeit diplomatically.
“The embassy holds this event
every year to show our host country 230-some years of democracy at work,” said
embassy spokesman Sean McIntosh. “Not just Cambodia, but any maturing democracy
can take away lessons from this.”
When asked who he had voted for,
however, McIntosh declined to say, noting with a chuckle that he wouldn’t
disclose his choice “even if I wasn’t a diplomat”.
Others at the embassy were more
forthcoming. Cambodian Center for Human Rights President Ou Virak, who attended
the event, said he was rooting for Obama, who he characterised as “a bit more
honest and open”.
“You can have a very tough,
hard-fought election and still be civil about things,” he said of American
elections, noting that Cambodia would do well to pay attention.
“The debate, for example, two
candidates go at each other, sometimes harshly, but at the end of the day, they
can shake hands, and they won’t persecute each other.”
Attendee Rameth Choeng, on the
other hand, said he had cast his mock election vote for Mitt Romney, “for real
change”.
“He’s a great businessman and his
party usually always helps other countries that upset their own people,” said
the 27-year-old Sam Rainsy Party youth activist, who wore an “I Voted” sticker
on one side of his chest, and a Republican elephant pin on the other. “From my
country, I see that Obama is just only speaking, not fighting... for [freedom
of] expression.”
Unlike that at the more subdued
embassy function, the atmosphere at the Democrats Abroad Cambodia viewing party
was ecstatic.
Group chair Britt Farbo said that
Obama’s victory had earned American expatriates at least one important thing:
“acknowledgement”.
“Obama grew up as an expat; his
mum was an expat. Acknowledgement means you have clout,” she said.
Romney’s American fans, however,
seemed to keep a somewhat lower profile than their Democratic counterparts
yesterday, but one supporter at Meta House – who good-naturedly noted that she
“came to the wrong party” – said she wasn’t totally unhappy with the results.
“I think [Romney’s] a little more
pragmatic in his policies, but I’m not upset,” said the voter, who declined to
be named.
“If America wanted Obama to win,
that’s okay.”
Stuart White
Business & Investment Opportunities
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