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Friends reflect on legacy of Obama's mother
If he had not been raised by a loving mother, Barack Obama may not have inspired the millions of people who voted to elect him as president of the United States, friends of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, say
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If he had not been raised by a loving mother, Barack Obama may not have inspired the millions of people who voted to elect him as president of the United States, friends of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, say.
In a panel session, "Ann Dunham Soetoro: An East-West Center Legacy", or what many probably thought of as more of a reunion of Ann's friends and colleagues, testimony after testimony was delivered on the person many only knew as U.S. president-elect Barack Obama's mother.
The discussion, held on Thursday, was part of a three-day conference of the East-West Center, organized under the theme "Building an Asia-Pacific Community Unity in Diversity" at Sanur Paradise Hotel.
The conference featured panels on key issues, including democracy and Islam, global warming, gender and sociocultural subjects and volunteerism.
The one theme that recurred in testimonies given by the panel was that Obama, or at least from what the billions of people who watched his campaign could tell, is a stunning reflection of Ann.
"His mother's presence exudes constantly throughout him...and he became the kind of person Ann was, the maverick who really wanted to bring change to the world," said Julia Suryakusuma, a friend of Ann's and a columnist for The Jakarta Post.
Ann Dunham, who had Obama with her first, Kenyan husband, later married Indonesian Lolo Soetoro, whom she met at a Hawaiian University.
Lolo eventually moved back to Indonesia and Ann followed, bringing Obama along with her.
Obama stayed for four years in Menteng, Jakarta, before being sent back to live with his grandparents in Hawaii. He eventually graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School before becoming the junior senator from Illinois and president-elect.
In his book "Dreams from My Father", Obama describes his childhood in Indonesia as "one long adventure, the bounty of a young boy's life". He recalled being troubled by the poverty around him, "the empty look on the faces of farmers the year the rains never came" and, "the desperation of the disabled beggars who came to the family's door".
"But Ann knew that the book should have been titled 'Dreams of my Mother', because (Obama) had told her that," Julia said.
"She had that much influence on him," she added.
Ann Dunham, born Stanley Ann Dunham in Kansas in 1942, was an anthropologist. Her influence on Indonesia's civil society, friends said, was immeasurable.
"She researched and wrote on peasant blacksmithing in Java, worked for the Ford Foundation, championed women and helped bring micro-credit to the Indonesian poor," said Mary Zurbuchen, also a friend of Ann, who had worked with her during her service to the Ford Foundation in Jakarta.
"She was a trailblazer, because it was hard for a foreign organization to do all that under the administration then...I do feel the impact of her work was greater than how it seemed at that time," said Mary, who moved to Jakarta in 1982.
Lolo and Ann split in 1972. She moved back to Hawaii and died of Ovarian Cancer in 1995.
In the days leading to her death, Mary recalled Ann's grace.
"She told me that she planned to attend her son's wedding. She told me her son was marrying a woman from Chicago and she predicted that he would eventually live there," Mary said.
"She also said she would not be surprised if her son went into politics," she added.
