Other Publications
Obama to bridge the West and Islam
Peter F. Spalding , Washington DC | Sat, 11/22/2008 12:53 PM | Opinion
Americans can be grateful to Indonesia for the contributions the Indonesian culture made to the character of a bright, sensitive, young boy named Barack Hussein Obama who was known to his Indonesian school mates from 1967 to 1971 as "Barry."
The United States will soon have a President who has a profound understanding and respect for Islam gained from having been immersed in "the real Indonesia" of the kampong during his first two years in Indonesia and from his later exposure to the tolerance and pluralistic attitudes at SD Besuki Mentang in Jakarta.
In The Audacity of Hope, the future President of the United States recalls that "our family was not well off in those early years; the Indonesian Army did not pay its lieutenants much. ...without the money to go to the international school that most expatriate children attended, I went to local Indonesian schools and ran the streets with the children of farmers, servants, tailors, and clerks."
Obama writes that he "remembered those years as a joyous time, full of adventure and mystery -- days of chasing down chickens and running from water buffalo, nights of shadow puppets and ghost stories and street vendors (kaki lima) bringing delectable sweets to our door." When his Indonesian stepfather left the military and obtained a job in the oil sector the young Obama was fortunate to attend SD Besuki Mentang, where he studied alongside Muslim, Christian, and Hindu students.
Today Obama knows the Muazzin's call to prayer by heart having lived in the shadow of a Mosque from when he was seven until he was eleven years old. He studied the tenets of Pancasila and can take to heart the motto enshrined on the Indonesian Coat of Arms, Bhinneka Tunggal lka (unity in diversity) which could well be the motto of his own administration.
I also understand how a sensitive seven year old feels attending a local school in a foreign country without speaking the language. I lived in Sweden from when I was seven until I was ten when my father was posted to the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm. I too was a shy outsider initially and then joined the adopted culture to such an extent that I was admonished by my father who told me and my twin brother: "you boys will never get into Harvard if you only speak Swedish to each other."
President elect Obama's mother had similar concerns. She woke her son at 4 am every morning to go over his English lessons and may well have said to her son: "Barack you will never get into Harvard if you only speak Bahasa Indonesia all the time."
The influence of Obama's Indonesian immersion lingers on. I see the Indonesian aspects of our future President's makeup reflected in the dignified, reserve, calm, and pensive aspects of his character. Barack Obama is halus by nature.
President Obama will not rush to judgment. He has been a stranger in a strange land as a young boy and therefore more likely to see the benefits of a world without strangers as an adult.
The future American President's experience in Indonesia makes him eager to assume mutual respect and understanding even when the two do not presume agreement. He is able to appreciate the full meaning of the term "the dignity of difference" and is therefore inclined towards tolerance and dialogue.
Obama has a unique understanding of the gifts of charity and sacrifice from having witnessed the holy month of Ramadan from a unique perspective. Obama's Indonesian experience makes him more likely to ask "has the United States put itself in the shoes-often the bare feet and sandals of those affected by its foreign policy?"
Perhaps the greatest legacy of President-elect Obama's Indonesian experience is his respect and understanding for Islam, which will hopefully be reciprocated over time by those elements in Islam that today wish his country ill. Above all, a President Obama will be in a unique position to build bridges of mutual respect and understanding between Islam and the West.
Obama does not feel morally superior and no longer will the nation he leads feel morally superior to other members of the international community.
Obama is an admirer of the famed theologian Reinhold Niebuhr who wrote: "The fact that honest men see the hierarchy of moral values and principals in a different order according to their different perspectives must not discourage us from honestly seeking to do what is right. But it should dissuade us from all self-righteous assumptions that we are truly moral."
This reflects the Just and Civilized Society envisioned in Pancasila (Kemanusiaan yang Adil dan Beradab) and is something the young Obama came to respect as a school boy in Indonesia.
The world is a better place today because of Barack Obama's election to the Presidency of the United States of America. We can all look forward to the day when President Barack Obama returns to Indonesia and thanks the people of Indonesia in person for their kind hospitality those many years ago.
The writer served as the American Consul General in Surabaya from 1990 to 1993. He has completed a book entitled In the Shoes of Others: An Ethical Foreign Policy for America. He can be reached at PFS202@AOL.COM
What's On
- Franchise & Business Concept
11/13/2009 11/15/2009 Jakarta Convention Center - Indonesia Furniture Fair
11/14/2009 11/22/2009 Jakarta Convention Center - Indonesia Maternity & Baby Expo 2009
11/20/2009 11/22/2009 Jakarta Convention Center
- Festival of India
10/29/2009 12/15/2009 Balai Kartini & Umar Ismail Hall, Jakarta
- Best Dutch Books Designs
10/08/2009 11/12/2009 Erasmus Huis, Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav S-3, Kuningan, South Jakarta (Tel. 5241069) - Power of the Shape. Sculpture exhibition by Dolorosa Sinaga
10/29/2009 11/15/2009 Kendra Gallery of Contemporary Art, Bali Until Nov. 15 Jl. Drupadi No.88B, Basangkasa Seminyak, Bali - The Erased Time: Solo exhibition by FX Harsono
11/01/2009 11/14/2009 Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Central Jakarta
Steve2 (not verified) — Thu, 11/27/2008 - 4:34pm
I too am an expat living in Muslim Asia. I recognize, as does our last correspondent that there are issues of religious intolerance in this part of the world. To say that intolerance exists is nothing new. To say that the United States has just elected its most cultural diverse president in its history is. That surely is the subject of this editorial in both content and tone.
Dont miss the significance of this: God (Allah, if you see Him that way) has just revealed His hand. He clearly is guiding this world - which only one year into its new century took a dangerous turn toward an apocalytic precipice - into the possibility of a new raprochment between the Muslim East and the Christian West. That is a hopeful sign.
However, it is just a sign of the Lord's intention, not the fulfilment of it. I can tell you that as a Christian my understanding of God is that He provides the inspiration, but His people must provide the perspiration. This is going to take work to make it work. It is going to take good will and hopeful attitudes on all sides of this historic divide. If we succeed in bringing about a more peaceful understanding in this world, then our children will praise our actions for generations to come. If we fail, from bitterness and prejudice, they will curse us throughout eternity.
Paolo scalpini (not verified) — Mon, 11/24/2008 - 10:00pm
to Mr. Spalding:
Apparently your experience as a consul 15 years has kept you far away from "the real Indonesia" (of the kampong and the parts of the cities that are not 'colonized' by various kinds of expats) which, since the iron grip of the New Ordered got less thight, started sinking deeper and deeper in a quicksand of religious intolerance, undemocratic bylaws, ethnic conflict, sectarianism, desintegration, environmental destruction, slash-and-burn economics, crime and social decay. It is the Indonesia where there is a boundless amount of money for new malls or mosques but practically none for education and infrastructure. And you see the result of this in many sections of Indonesian society. Therefore your account sounds utterly naive.
The decades before and after Obama lived in Jakarta, the situation and political realities were very different too. With the threat of Communism as a justification and the help of uncle Sam, all kinds of progressive and intellectual elements where whiped out. Decades of corruption, collusion and mismanagement have lead to desparation with few alternatives to turn to except for the islamists.
And I am sure they are not impressed by Obama. And why should they?
Getting Indonesia out of the mess they are in will be more complex than giving away free Obama T-shirts and praising them for their achievements.
Of course before medling with other countries, a nice start would be for the USA to sort out its own incredible financial mess and its failed forein policies. Perhaps putting competent people in influential positions would be a good idea? It doesn't seem that Obama will bring anything else than business as usual though.
to Mr. Bismillahi:
Your experience is typical of the temporary tourist. If you would go on and try to stay for a longer period in Indonesia I am afraid your impression will change. You will see the (religious) intolerance, the xenofobia and the lack of respect of human rights more clearly next to the short-term profit seeking parasitism and blink-blink materialism. You'll come to see that the USA isn't so bad after all. There is no affermative action for people from Irian Jaya in Indonesia. You can't freely open your own church or religious institution or believe whatever you want to believe openly. If you were a woman you wouldn't get equal rights. If you belonged to the wrong ethnic group you wouldn't even have to try to run for president.
Of course as a Muslim male belonging to the dominant part of society you may be less bothered by all of that.
So maybe you should try and see whether as a foreign (Afro) co-religionist you are really more welcome to stay in Indonesia than a foreign Muslim or domestic Afro-American in the USA. Good luck!
I wish you the best. If you succeed and it turns out easier for you because of your religion and in spite of your skin colour compared to someone with another religion or race then I am happy for you but please don't only talk about discrimination in the USA because your success would prove that the opposite discrimination also exists elsewhere. If you don't succeed, ask yourself why you are not welcome in spite of 'Muslim solidarity' and maybe you can buy a nice discounted house in Florida instead.
Bismillahi — Sun, 11/23/2008 - 6:51am
Eric Hamza Byas - This is a very very good outlook! Indonesia is very unique in terms of tolerance and religious harmony. I was fortunate to have visited Indonesia during the Xmas Holidays a few years and I must say, as an Afro American Muslim, married to an Indonesian, America can learn a lot from the Indonesians. The people are so friendly. So day, I hope to retire there. I wish the Indonesian Government would allow for duel Citizenship.