CAMPAIGN
OUTSIDER The Indonesian
candidate By Muhammad
Cohen
HONG KONG - Barack Obama took his
winning streak to his birth state, Hawaii, this
week. On Super Tuesday, Obama won his current home
state, Illinois. Earlier that day, he took 75% of
the votes in another place that he called home for
four years, Jakarta.
Obama's candidacy has
generated excitement in Indonesia among the native
population as well as among American expatriates.
"To be honest it gives us quite a thrill,"
journalist Wimar Witoelar says. "We find it
difficult to produce great leaders for ourselves
so it will be great to produce a president of the
USA. I hope he will
invite an Indonesian to his
inauguration, and I hope it will be me."
The excitement among Indonesians has
little to do with Obama's political stance, and
most to do with having a person who has lived
among them being a strong contender for president
of the United States, according to Democrats
Abroad Jakarta chair Arian Ardie.
"The
excitement comes not so much from his policies or
plans, but because he has known Indonesia, he has
lived here. It is a strong bond for them and will
be an advantage for further strengthening
bilateral relations."
Some Jakartans
believe the biggest benefits will accrue directly
to Uncle Sam if the multicultural Illinois senator
- his father is Kenyan, his American mother later
married an Indonesian - wins the presidency.
"It would immediately increase America's
popularity rating," said Witoelar, who was
presidential spokesman for Abdurrahman Wahid, the
first freely chosen leader of Indonesia's
post-Suharto era. "The George W Bush years will
seem like a bad dream. It will reaffirm our faith
that America is the land of great people and great
ideas."
That reaction will extend far
beyond Indonesia, according to TV newsman Dalton
Tanonaka, a Hawaii native who ran for office there
as a Republican and worked in Hong Kong and Tokyo
before coming to Jakarta in 2006. "I believe the
time is right for a president who's lived outside
of the US for a time, someone raised in a
non-white majority," said Tanonaka. "It would ease
the anxieties of a lot of people in the world."
Obama's background will help boost his
credibility if elected president in much of his
international dealings, while also giving him a
broad perspective, argues Jakarta businessman and
native New Yorker Chris Purdy.
"I believe
that having lived in Indonesia, a diverse country
with the world's largest Muslim population, Obama
will have a certain credibility with many
international - including Muslim - leaders around
the world. His having lived in Indonesia will, I
believe, contribute to his ability to see issues
from different perspectives, listen to and
understand people who are different, and build
bridges to solve common problems."
Even
though his exposure to Indonesia was in his early
childhood, it would serve to benefit Obama's take
on the world, argued Ardie of Democrats Abroad.
"Any international experience is good for a
presidential candidate," Ardie said. "The US is
part of a global economy and part of global
society. Understanding how things work outside of
the United States, and perhaps sometimes how they
don't work, will help any president be a better
leader."
Ardie, born in the US and
relocated to his father's native Indonesia, may be
projecting some of his own background when he says
of Obama: "Even though Senator Obama was young
when he lived in Indonesia, what he saw, what he
experienced shaped his later outlook. It gave him
an understanding of the extreme poverty which
exists in many parts of the world. It gave him a
better understanding of how others perceive
Americans and what it means to be an American."
Jakarta will serve as the kickoff point
for the inaugural global primary by Democrats
Abroad. An estimated 2.5 million registered
Democrats living overseas will have 11 delegate
votes to choose the nominee. The Indonesian event
has been given an assist from Obama's sister, Maya
Soetoro-Ng, like Ardie an alumnus of Jakarta
International School.
Poetry in
diversity Award-winning Indonesian poet and
writer Laksmi Pamuntjak sees a further impact on
Obama from spending time in a country that has
"Unity in Diversity" as its motto.
"Having
lived in Indonesia, at the very least, would have
acquainted him with the idea of living with
difference, as Indonesia itself, a modern 20th
century invention for all intents and purposes, is
made up of some 17,000 islands, some 450
languages, is continuously in flux and is never
the 'one' thing - something, in the words of a
friend, of a patchwork of old/new, here/there,
high tech/new tech materials, and always with a
sense of bricolage.
"The young Obama would
have probably had an early taste of the
vacillations, ambiguities and imperfections of
such a place, but also of the richness of
viewpoints and interpretations, the struggle with
history, and the sense of hope that comes, as
young nations always do, from finding oneself
anew."
Ati Kisjanto knows as a classmate
of "Barry" at central Jakarta's Besuki School what
Obama saw in Indonesia firsthand. Kisjanto, a
Christian Indonesian, dismisses reports that
Besuki was a Muslim madrassa as "baseless. We went
to a very moderate school which welcomes
Christians and Muslims." The mosque that's now on
the school grounds was built long after Barry and
Ati left.
"Living in Indonesia, especially
being part of an Indonesian family and
environment, he mingled with locals, instead of
living in an exclusive compound like most US
expats in Indonesia nowadays - that enriched his
perspective on how the world actually consists of
more than one race, one culture, one belief, one
idealism," Kisjanto said.
Not so
manipulative Indirectly making a comparison
with Paul Wolfowitz, a former US ambassador to
Indonesia and architect of the Iraq invasion,
Kisjanto said the Obama "will use his background
and understanding of other cultures in a positive
way rather than in a manipulative way like other
US top ranks who've been in Indonesia".
It
is only in the past few months that Obama has
become a household name in the US, yet he is
already hardly less well-known in Indonesia.
"The first point that is striking is how
many Indonesians even know who Obama is," Purdy
said. "He is well known and, having lived here,
earns a special place in the heart of most
Indonesians. They like the fact that his
step-father was Indonesian, his half-sister is
Indonesian. There is certainly a cultural affinity
because of Obama's experience."
Even so,
few in Indonesia have any idea of what Obama's
positions are, points out an Indonesian feminist
now living in the US. She fears he could
contribute to the wrong side of Indonesia's
struggle between Islamism and pluralism. "The fact
that Obama has Muslim heritage and that he is
playing soft on security issues doesn't make us
confident he will be effective and strong in
combating extremism in Indonesia and around the
world."
In comparison, Hillary Clinton,
Obama's Democrat rival for the US presidency, "has
a commitment in the women's movement and has
worked hard on this issue with us. We think she
will help women in Muslim countries more
effectively and will have the guts to face the
fundamentalists who are trying hard to cover us
every where in the world, even in the US.
"Frankly, I don't think Obama has learned
anything from Indonesia,'' said the feminist, who
asked for her name to be withheld. "He has never
mentioned Indonesia in his interviews or his
Muslim heritage. He is proud about his
African-American heritage, but never talks about
Indonesia."
Obama's website dedicates
thousands of words to countering claims that he is
really a Muslim, challenges that may play a part
in his reticence to refer to his Indonesian
experience.
"It is sad that having
witnessed other cultures and religions can be used
as a potential weapon against any candidate,"
Democrats Abroad's Ardie laments. He reminds
voters: "Some of best presidents have lived
abroad."
Former broadcast news producer
Muhammad Cohen told America's story to the
world as a US Information Agency diplomat and is
author of Hong Kong On Air (www.hongkongonair.com), a
novel set during the 1997 handover about
television news, love, betrayal, high finance and
cheap lingerie.
(Copyright 2008 Asia
Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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