'Obama will pay more emphasis in SEA region'

US Ambassador to Malaysia Paul W Jones said President Barack Obama’s re-election will provide more room for active policy engagement with Southeast Asian countries.

He said Obama had, after taking office as President in 2008, shifted its foreign policy towards Asia and this was a deliberate shift.

"The US have been engaging with this region for a long time. But over the last couple of years there has been an increasing emphasis.”

"For example Obama was the first US president to attend the East Asia summit in Bali last year and he plans to attend the (upcoming) summit in Cambodia. This is just one example of a broad range of engagement we have in Asean,” Jones said.

Washington University Sociology Professor Charles Hirschman said Obama represents the future of the United States.

He said the American society is moving in the direction that Obama is representing and it is very fortunate to have somebody of his talent.

“He’s won the youth’s vote, the women’s vote, the minority’s vote, the immigrant’s vote and even the Latino’s vote but he probably received a little over 40 per cent of the ‘White’ votes.

“However, the majority rules,” said Hirschman who said he was very pleased with the results.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Head of the Centre for American Studies in Professor Dr K S Nathan described Obama’s win as another chance for him to work through the US economy and to reduce the deficits further.

He said the deficits were inherited from the previous administration because of the excessive foreign policy and federal approach by former president George W Bush.

“These are the challenges that Obama inherited, so we cannot blame him if he has not resolved all of that as this will take time.

“Maybe in the second term he will have the opportunity to be more focused. He can also be bolder in taking initiatives to resolve some of these issues,” said Nathan.

Meanwhile, American exchange student Alisa Vuong said she’s very happy with the result.