Jakarta, June 15: To celebrate the homecoming of Barack Obama to Jakarta in March, Indonesian author Damien Dematra published a novel about Obama’s childhood years here. When the U.S. president postponed his trip until this week, Dematra made his book into a movie, Little Obama, to open this month.
Now that Obama has delayed again, to work on the oil spill in the Gulf and its political fallout, Dematra is switching to Plan C.
“I can understand the reason, but I was so, so disappointed,” Dematra says.
If Obama does finally visit the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, Dematra plans to welcome him with another biographical film, based on his prequel novel published Thursday.
‘Showcase of Islam with democracy’
Most Indonesians “are losing their enthusiasm toward President Obama’s visit, but there is minimal damage to his popularity,” says Azyumardi Azra, a Muslim scholar who advises Indonesia’s vice president on religious affairs.
Besides the sentimental background to an Obama visit, Azra says the trip’s real significance would be to spotlight a success story. Indonesia is “a showcase of Islam with democracy,” he says, proving “Islam is compatible with democracy, and modernity,” as shown by the high positions of women in Indonesia. Strong U.S. support “sends a good signal that the Muslim world could and should adopt the Indonesian model,” Azra says.
This week, Azra is attending a conference in Cairo to mark the one-year anniversary of a speech there by Obama calling for a redefinition of the U.S. relationship with Muslims around the world. Azra intends to encourage other Muslim countries to “enhance educational cooperation with the U.S.,” he says. “If Muslims are still left behind in education, they will be literal-minded and lack open-minded vision.”
Two schools in the capital have long awaited the return of the boy who studied here from 1967 to 1971. The SDN Menteng 1 school choir wants to welcome the “kid from Menteng,” as Indonesians affectionately call him, with a new song. “Barack Obama, funny little boy; he used to be here, Barack Obama,” runs the opening line.
Obama moved here from Hawaii as a 6-year-old with his mother and her second husband, an Indonesian. If he visits, he will find much in the Menteng neighborhood streets familiar, although urban growth forced Dematra to film his movie in another less-developed city. The boys here are soccer-mad, the meatball hawkers push the snack he enjoyed, and the muezzin’s call to prayer resounds five times a day.
Childhood friend Slamet Januadi says he understands why Obama keeps delaying his trip, but he still hopes for a chance to say goodbye. Obama’s departure was abrupt, he says, and friends wondered what had become of the “dark foreigner,” as some boys taunted him. To keep bullies at bay, Slamet, three years older than Obama, would whisk him to safety on the back of his bike.
Even as a boy, Obama, who became fluent in the local dialect, seemed set on high office, says Slamet, 52. When Obama asked his friends in 1970 what they wanted to become, Slamet and his brother answered “soldiers,” a pledge they fulfilled, while another boy, later a bank manager, opted for business.
“Barry was a little disappointed and said, ‘That only leaves the presidency, but I can tell the businessman to give me money and tell you to get the weapons to save me,’ ” Slamet says. “We chased him around the yard, fighting and laughing, but it showed that he was smart and could lead the people to choose what he wants them to.”
‘A new kind of Indonesia’
Other Indonesians aren’t inspired by Obama’s story. Ismail Yusanto, spokesman for Hizbut Tahrir, an Islamic party that wants to combine all Muslim nations into one, says Obama should cancel any plans to visit.
Obama “tries to be close to Muslims in rhetoric, but Muslims don’t need rhetoric,” Yusanto says. “Obama has the power in his hands to do something,” meaning the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and a declaration of “support for freedom for Palestine,” Yusanto says.
His group, banned in several countries but not in Indonesia, has vowed to organize demonstrations whenever Obama visits.
Such protests will show Obama, three decades after he left a country under military dictatorship, that “it’s a new kind of Indonesia, a democratic one,” says Teuku Faizasyah, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “There will be different kinds of reactions, but that’s normal. I am confident he will receive a very warm welcome.”
He expects the visit to be rescheduled for November. The White House referred to the latest schedule change as a postponement but did not set a new date.
Dematra sees important potential in an Obama visit. “We have a big danger in Indonesia, not only from terrorism but also fundamentalism and extremism,” he says. “We need an icon of pluralism, and here we have a world icon. We should be proud of the fact that he was here.”
Near Obama’s second home in Jakarta, Agus Salam, 56, recalls the strong boy whose hair everyone wanted to touch because it wasn’t like theirs — much to the young Obama’s annoyance. Salam’s mother used to sell Obama the vegetable-and-peanut-sauce snack gado gado. Salam continues the trade from a roadside stall for a meager profit. “I have no jealousy toward my classmates who got rich,” he says. “This is my destiny.”
Obama’s story can help change such views, says Dematra, the filmmaker.
“Dreaming is not very Indonesian,” he says. “Our value is to accept things. That is the fate God has given you.”
Obama offers hope of change, he says.
“You have to dare to dream, and be brave enough to be different,” he says. “That’s kind of new for the Indonesian people.”
—Agencies