Thousands of kilometres away in Iowa, it was cold, it was near midnight, and a man of colour was making history.

American presidential candidate Barack Obama had won 37.6 per cent of delegates' votes in the overwhelmingly white state.

In a riveting victory speech, he told a packed rally: 'They said this day would never come.'

Mr Obama did not elaborate, but it was clear what he was referring to: the day an African-American becomes a serious contender to be top dog in his country, nay, in the world - as President of the United States.

Yes, it is early days yet. The 46-year-old lost in New Hampshire this week, coming in second after Mrs Hillary Clinton.

He may or may not eventually win the presidency.

But to my mind, he has already won an important battle for his country - its people have shown that they are ready to look beyond skin colour in deciding who should lead them.

As a New York Times article put it: 'What was remarkable was the extent to which race was not a factor in this contest.'

That Friday morning, watching Mr Obama speak, I wondered when Singapore will have its victory too.

When will we become a nation where race is not a factor in an electoral contest?

It is an important question because this is a key (though by no means the only) symbol showing that this nation has cohered.

In 1988, when revealing how his successor was selected, then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said that then-National Development Minister S. Dhanabalan could have been considered if not for his race. Singapore was not ready for an Indian PM, said Mr Lee then.

Today, two decades on, this post-65er - as a member of the majority Chinese race - hopes that the mindset has changed or is on the way to being changed.

One hopes that when the PM draws up his list of potential successors and checks it twice, he is not leaving out someone simply because he thinks Singapore is not ready for an Indian PM.

I am not suggesting that we should be choosing a minority-race PM for the sake of having one.

But we should not not have a minority-race PM, just because he is of a minority race.

It is an ideal that harks back to our National Pledge by the late Mr S. Rajaratnam who penned the words: 'regardless of race, language or religion'.

But too often, in this country, we dismiss what some deem as airy-fairy ideals in favour of hard-nosed realism.

Perhaps, hope lies with the younger generation.

That is exactly what is happening in the US. Analysis of the polls in both states indicates that Mr Obama had the backing of young voters.

There was what The New York Times described as 'a sharp generational break' between the support he received and that his biggest rival, Mrs Clinton, garnered.

In Iowa, Mr Obama was backed by 60 per cent of voters under 25 while Mrs Clinton had about 45 per cent of voters over 65.

The same trend appeared in New Hampshire, where 60 per cent of voters under 25 voted for Mr Obama, as opposed to 22 per cent for Mrs Clinton.

Although the US has a much longer history than Singapore, I would like to believe that, like younger Americans, young Singaporeans have less emotional baggage and hang-ups about electing a minority-race leader, so long as the person is capable.

Mr Dhanabalan is more sceptical.

In a recent interview, he said that Singaporeans are still not ready for a non-Chinese PM.

Commenting on a survey that showed that over 91 per cent would accept a PM of another race, he said he thought respondents probably gave 'politically correct' answers that did not reflect their real feelings.

Give Singaporeans a chance.

Sometimes, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, or like a rumour that echoes ever louder as it bounces off the four walls of an empty room, such sentiments gain credence when they are repeated often enough.

Tell us often enough that we would not elect a Malay or Indian PM and, chances are, we just won't.

By all means, educate those of us who did not live through the race riots of the early days to remember the fragility of what we have, so that we will be better able to guard it.

But make us also believe in the possibility of a nation united 'regardless of race' and we will aspire to live up to that promise - not out of dread of mutual destruction but out of desire for mutual respect. Sow suspicion and you reap a nation besieged by distrust among its people.

In the US, in 1955, a young black woman named Rosa Parks was arrested when she refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white passenger. In 1962, a young black man named James Meredith was prevented by his own state governor from studying in the University of Mississippi.

Compared with such entrenched institutionalised racism that the US took years to dismantle, we have less holding us back.

So Mr Obama may or may not make it to the White House. That to me is not the test. The test is that his journey even got off to a start.

Singapore is not the US, but Mr Obama's journey gives this post-65er reason to dream.

xueying@sph.com.sg