Obama In Indonesia: Cheering, Bakso and Friendship — An Indonesian Welcome Home for Obama. He’s famous for his coolness and dignified bearing, but on a showery Tuesday afternoon, US President Barack Obama touched down in Jakarta for the first time since his childhood to a welcome fit for a rock star. Also read: Merapi Volcanic Ash Jakarta (Indonesia) Update News Airlines Stop Jakarta Flights After Volcano Blast.
His trip was twice postponed and threatened this time by Mount Merapi’s eruptions, but long-time Jakarta residents could not recall another foreign leader arriving to such fanfare.
Throngs of office workers braved city streets in the rain or peered from high-rise office blocks for a glimpse of Obama’s motorcade as it sped down an empty toll road and onto Jalan Sudirman en route to the Presidential Palace.
Magazine editor Ratna Dewi joined the crowd outside her office to catch a fleeting glimpse of Obama in Cadillac One, the US president’s virtually impregnable armor-plated limousine.
“Obama’s different from other leaders,” Ratna said. “He’s charismatic, he appeals to young people — and he’s one good-looking man!”
Countless others gathered around television screens as Air Force One touched down at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport after a flight from India, their screams echoing through hallways and living rooms as the American leader and the first lady, Michelle Obama, descended to the tarmac to be greeted by an honor guard of officials and soldiers.
Although he is beset by political troubles back home, the reception left little doubt that Obama remains a star in the city he called home between 1967 and 1971.
For his part, the former Menteng resident said he barely recognized the city.
“As I was driving down the streets, the only building that was there when I first moved to Jakarta was Sarinah,” he said at a joint press conference with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
“Now it’s one of the shorter buildings on the road.”
“When you visit a place that you spent time in as a child, as a president it’s a little bit disorienting.”
At the glittering state dinner that followed at Istana Negara — a place that, as a child from “Menteng dalam,” he said he never imagined he would one day enter — Obama thanked his hosts for the “bakso, nasi goreng, emping, krupuk.”
“Semuanya enak,” he said, praising the food to a crowd that included former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who made her first visit to the palace since she left office in 2004 after a falling-out with Yudhoyono.
During the dinner, Yudhoyono conferred the Bintang Jasa Utama, the nation’s highest civilian honor, on Obama’s late mother, Ann Dunham Soetoro, for her work with NGOs in Indonesia.
“In honoring her you honor the spirit that led her to travel to various parts of the country,” Obama said. “I am deeply moved.”
But Obama emphasized that his visit was more than nostalgia.
“I’m here to focus not on the past, but on the future,” he said.
At the palace, Obama and Yudhoyono formally launched the Comprehensive Partnership Agreement, which is designed to enhance investment and trade between the two countries.
“Indonesia is one of the growing markets that we’re going to focus on as part of my initiative to double US exports,” Obama said.
Yudhoyono said the US was Indonesia’s third-largest trading partner, with trade valued at $21 billion in 2008.
But Obama wanted more. “We don’t like No. 3, we want to be No. 1,” he said.
Obama also stressed the importance of cooperation “in science and technology” to fuel growth and entrepreneurship. Yudhoyono called for enhanced cooperation on global environmental challenges.
Obama vowed to double education partnerships in the next five years, and to support Indonesia’s lead in tackling climate change.
He also praised Indonesia’s successful transition from a dictatorship to a democracy, and the work of civil society groups in fighting corruption and promoting human rights.
Obama also noted the existing partnership between Washington and Jakarta to combat terrorism and maritime piracy.
And as the visit comes in the wake of twin natural disasters that have rocked the country, Obama said he hoped his presence showed that “in good times and bad times the United States stands as a friend to Indonesia.”
The visit is also widely seen as a further attempt by Obama to reach out to the Islamic world.
“We don’t expect that we are going to completely eliminate some of the misunderstandings, mistrust developed over a long period of time, but we do think that we’re on the right path,” he said.
He reserved his harshest words for Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying Israel’s decision to approve 1,000 new housing units in East Jerusalem sent the wrong signal.
“This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations, and I’m concerned that we’re not seeing each side make the extra effort involved to get a breakthrough,” Obama said.
“Each of these incremental steps end up breaking trust.”
Obama is scheduled to make a major speech at University of Indonesia this morning, which is expected to help build warmer relations with the Muslim world.
There have been reports that Mount Merapi’s eruptions could cause him to leave before his scheduled afternoon departure for the G-20 summit in Seoul. thejakartaglobe.com
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