T

he Nobel Peace Prize for President Barack Obama has invited a wide range of reactions, from delight to disappointment. Critics and cynics say Obama has yet to achieve much, having held the presidency for a mere eight months. But those who really want to understand the reason for the award need only to follow the official explanation by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The committee praised the "change in the international climate" that the president had brought, along with his cherished goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," it added. President Obama, in his acceptance speech at the White House, pointed out that "the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes".

We remember the egg of Columbus. As the story goes, guests at a tavern were heckling Christopher Columbus about his successful expedition. The cynics jeered that discovering the Americas was no great accomplishment. Columbus challenged his critics to stand an egg upright. When nobody succeeded, Columbus showed how to do it by tapping the egg on the table, flattening its tip. Now the egg of Columbus refers to an achievement that seems simple after the fact.

Two years ago, the United States was firmly engaged in a war of occupation in Iraq and endless battles in Afghanistan. Not only were they engaged, but then president George W. Bush firmly believed that American values should be preserved by pre-emption, unilateralism and division. Then one year ago, America rejected this aggressive stance. They elected by a landslide a president who believes in negotiation, multilateralism and unity. President Obama later stated in a speech in Cairo, "I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap and share common principles - principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."

Cynics say Obama has not achieved anything. But until 2008, nobody could find a way to avert America from her collision course with the world. Then Obama offered a way out. Now America is a great nation once more. Obama has brought back America to the people, and the world can rally around common goals of peace and prosperity. No doubt Barack Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. It is not a comfortable prize for Obama because now expectations have risen even higher.

We have a president of our own, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is off to a strong start on the world stage. His acclaimed performances at the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh and address at Harvard University set a new international tone for Indonesia. Like President Obama, Yudhoyono's challenge is to manage the expectations he has raised to a very high level. It is a measure of his standing that the high hopes he set in October 2009 have not been met with skepticism internationally, in sharp contrast with the lukewarm reception he is getting at home in Indonesia. There is some parallel here as Obama also has more critics at home than abroad. This may be due to ignorance and habitual fault-finding, which in Indonesia has become the trademark of the newly politically concerned.

In the world consciousness, Indonesia has risen from obscurity at best to a shining debutante in the new world international order branded by US President Obama. His success is Indonesia's success, and it would be asinine to begrudge his success for the sake of negativism.

Having recognized his successes, it is worrying to see how high he has set expectations. He welcomes the changes taking place in global politics and recognizes the G20 as a manifestation. In his Harvard address he waxed lyrical to say the G20 "is not just an economic powerhouse - it is also a civilization powerhouse", thus staking Indonesia's claim as a civilization heavyweight. These attitudes have been absent from the Indonesian public dialogue. Recently, the popular idea of important issues were Malaysia's alleged usurping of batik, the Pendet dance and the Ambalat islands. It will be refreshing to see these petty complaints recede into the slipstream of our ship of state, to be replaced by issues of peace in the Middle East, religious moderation and most importantly climate change.

Climate change is the overriding issue in the world, which requires international cooperation. Speaking at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, Yudhoyono boldly showed developed nations the way forward by pledging to reduce the country's carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2020. While this is highly acclaimed as a statement of political will, we wonder whether it is reasonable to achieve it, knowing the limited managerial capacity of the Indonesian government.

If Yudhoyono can intensify focus on climate change imperatives, then Indonesia has a tremendous advantage over the rest of the world. Carbon emissions abatement in Indonesia comes at a scale not achievable anywhere else in the world as Indonesia controls a major share of the planet's carbon emissions. Our forests could be a financial reserve in the form of carbon credits. Leaving its role as a major oil power, Indonesia could be a carbon credit superpower.

This is the new destiny of Indonesia. It challenges Yudhoyono to be a world statesman, one who will be instrumental in saving the globe from climate change, as well as a peacemaker equipped with a keen understanding of Islam in the political world. Yudhoyono's speech at Harvard and Obama's speech at Al Azhar present a juxtaposition of complementary ideas. The second Yudhoyono administration could be vastly different from the first one. The degree of difference may be as great as that between the past administration of the United States and the current one. President Obama has won the Nobel Prize this year. President Yudhoyono may win it in a future year.