2008-11-06 00:00:00
Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Is he Barack or Barry? Obama or Soetoro? On the campaign trail, John McCain once referred to him as "that one". As of Wednesday, he is "the one".
Obamania swept the world as giddily as an American Idol contest. He attained iconic status for his composed veneer, compelling delivery and eloquence becoming of a Harvard graduate.
His campaign team ingeniously juxtaposed a platform of "hope" over the Republican message of "fear".
After eight years of fearmongering, Americans ultimately voted for hope.
All is good and well tonight in America. Camelot is reborn, shades of the Kennedy and early Clinton years rekindled.
Indonesians were just as enamored as the rest of the world. An upsurge fueled by sentimentality over rationality.
A deluge of local features highlighted Obama's "brief" presence in Central Jakarta as distant cousins, old schoolmates and grade-school teachers used up their 15 minutes of fame to propagate Obamania through the faded childhood memory of America's 44th president-elect.
While Indonesians can't get enough of tales of the young Barry running around eating bakso in Menteng, Obama since the campaign began in January has been fleeting of his time here.
One brief remark of Indonesia has ever been recorded, and even his foreign policy briefs are elusive of reference to Indonesia or even Southeast Asia.
Barry may just have forgotten about his time in the world's largest archipelago.
Or perhaps, to placate a phobic electorate, chose to gloss over his experience among the world's largest Muslim population.
Recall how two Muslim women in headscarves were removed from standing in the televised background during an Obama rally by overzealous campaign workers.
Elections are all about appeasing domestic constituents. To the discerning foreign observer the conclusion, for now, is that he is an American leader, not a global one.
Obama's lament during the Democratic Party Convention that American factories were being shipped abroad is consistent with his party's ideology and his own platform that smells strangely of protectionism.
He dropped strong hints questioning the value of free trade with Asian partners, contending that limited access to these markets did not compensate for American job losses.
He has threatened to slash billions of dollars in tax breaks to U.S. companies who move their operations overseas, while pledging to ensure public contracts are awarded to companies committed to American workers.
In fact it was Obama who as Senator helped introduce the Patriot Employer Act last year, which provides tax credits to companies that maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in America relative to those outside the U.S.
Obama has specifically made clear his dislike of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement as they presently stand.
On foreign policy, the Obama camp has lauded a new era of multilateral cooperation distinct from that of the Bush administration.
Nevertheless strategic fundamentals will not change.
On the Palestine-Israel issue, a subject both Indonesians and Americans are passionate about, Obama will not deviate from the traditional U.S. stance.
Though supporting a two-state solution, he maintains that America's first and incontrovertible commitment in the Middle East is to Israeli security.
He has called for beefed-up military aid packages to Israel, including a joint missile defense system for the Jewish state.
A key pledge Obama has made has been the military's withdrawal from Iraq.
It will be a move welcomed around the world, since the U.S. should not have invaded in the first place.
But the narrative of withdrawal thus far has been self-servingly American rather than for the good of Iraqis.
Obama's logic seems simply that America lost, and now it is better to run away than pay the long-term consequences of involvement in Iraq.
Forcing the Iraqi government to take control before they are ready, muscling Iraqis to pay for the reconstruction, and abandoning security to a nascent Iraqi force is irresponsible.
Whether at the local china shop or in Iraq, the pottery-barn rule applies equally: You break it, you fix and pay for it!
For now, Obama offers much hope but not yet enough change.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20081106.B06&irec=5
I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE her choice of words! Really SPOT ON!
I kinda feel that him being elected 44th President US is mostly based on Sentimentality.
Ain't that what presidency election is mostly about?
for mere citizen without any politic background, what else would we choose someone for presidency?
my cousin once said, i chose him (whoever him is) first because I like his personality. thats my priority when election comes.
hm.
back again to character's persona. it's psychology.
who ever play their best to charm their audience, they're the winner.
politics and hollywood are only thin-ice different, I'd say.
Meidyatama Suryodiningrat speaks from a very rational point of view. She's not saying because Barack once spent his brief childhood here in Indonesia, hence, he'd be pro-Indonesia and that we're saved from whatever governmental burden we have on our shoulders.
To our hope (at least, mine) his relations to Indonesia would eventually give chance for US to open their eyes and see that Indonesia IS a real country and BALI is not a separate territory or separate government from Indonesia. Please. to the least, we can clear that up in the States, can't we? :)
Clearing up economic chaos won't be as easy as marching armies to the other part of the world, as bush did. the economy wouldn't break even though billion armies stood guard on every corner of the states.
Him:
Being harvard graduate, have experiences exploring outside the states, and not the common race winning the politics' chair, should:
Think rationally,
not emotionally.
head, not heart.
war on terror is dead.
if there's one thing we can learn from Miss Universe pageant is that
"peace on earth" is uproaring.
see, blonde don't always play dumb.
Obama, it's okay kok to be blonde-ish at one time. *grin
Whatever reason people chose Obama, I'm still happy that Bush is dead.
phew.. gladly get that outta my chest.
DingDong the evil is dead.
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