Almost a year after he took office, US President Barack Obama’s approval ratings may have slipped among the chattering classes of New York and San Francisco, but the sheen is yet to come off Obama-mania in Indonesia.
At least that’s how it seemed last week when a bronze statue of Obama as a 10-year-old boy was unveiled in a central Jakarta park, on the same day that he picked up his much-criticized Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
Located in the downtown Menteng Park, close to the Besuki primary school that Obama–then known as ‘Barry’–attended between the ages of six and ten, the statue is intended to encourage the youth of Indonesia to chase their dreams.
‘Hopefully this can motivate the children,’ said Sylviana Murni, mayor of central Jakarta, at the unveiling ceremony. ‘Who knows if there will be another child from this country who can become a world leader?’
You’d think it would be hard to disagree with such sentiments. But in a country as large and as politically-engaged as Indonesia, a version of Newton’s third law applies: every action has an equal and opposite protest movement.
Not long after the statue was erected, Heru Nugroho, an IT worker, launched an Indonesian-language Facebook campaign calling for the bronze cast of young Barry to be removed because it is a slur on the sovereignty of the nation.
A statement on the campaign’s web page, entitled ‘Turunkan Patung Barack Obama di Taman Menteng’ or ‘Take Down the Barack Obama Statue in Menteng Park,’ expresses shock at the decision to place a statue of a US citizen in an Indonesian public space, claiming that in the history of Indonesia as a sovereign nation, Obama is a ‘nobody’ who merely ‘ate and defecated’ in Jakarta before returning to his homeland.
The group, which has already attracted more than 30,000 supporters, plans to write to the governor of Jakarta, Fauzi Bowo, to protest and claims it will file a lawsuit to remove the statue if it attracts more than 100,0000 members.
Although many people in this overwhelmingly Muslim country have been disappointed by Obama’s desire to continue George W. Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, foreign policy concerns are not behind the growing opposition to the statue, according to the group’s founder.
‘I respect Obama and realize that he’s a role model who had a dream and attained it,’ explains Heru, who runs an Indonesian culture and history website called Wacana Nusantara (or Archipelago Discourse). ‘But this is Indonesia and Menteng Park is a public area for Indonesian society.’
There’s no question, for once, of a misuse of public funds. The statue, which cost just over $10,000, was funded by a group of Indonesian businessmen. Heru’s concern is that Indonesian public spaces should be reserved for the commemoration of Indonesian figures.
‘We want a statue of someone who has made a contribution to Indonesia or Jakarta and we have so many real local heroes we could put there instead.’
Heru argues that former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin, widely credited with turning around the city’s economic fortunes, or Benyamin Sueb, a popular local entertainer in the 1970s, would make much more appropriate candidates.
While much bile has been spilled online about the statue, a real-world visit to the offending object would probably calm much of the tension.
Measuring only 110 centimetres tall, it’s underwhelming to say the least, dwarfed by a nearby installation depicting a footballer scoring a goal.
When I went down to the park, which is situated in one of Jakarta’s most upmarket districts, at 11am on Wednesday morning, there were a few students milling around, while some passers-by stopped to have their pictures taken next to the statue.
Of the ten people I approached to canvass their views on the statue, only a few backed the campaign to remove it.
‘I disagree with the statue being here because Obama is American not Indonesian,’ said Bifara, a 17-year-old high-school student, to nods of agreement from his two friends. ‘In our country, some people like Obama and some dislike him but most dislike the US.’
‘We should replace this with a statue of a true Indonesian hero such as Bung Tomo [a militant leader who led the fight to drive out the Dutch in 1945] or Mohammad Hatta [another nationalist who went on to become Prime Minister].’
Rozi, a 35-year-old salesman, had decided to check out the statue after reading about the controversy in the newspapers. ‘This isn’t the proper place for this statue,’ he said. ‘It should be moved to his school down the road.’
But most people I spoke to shared the view of JJ Rizal, an Indonesian historian, who suggested that ‘little Obama is a symbol of our pride and hope that someday we will have an inspiring figure like Obama in our country’.
‘As a kid, Obama played around this area and now he’s US president,’ noted Taufik, a 16-year-old high-school student. ‘This statue reminds us that maybe we can follow his example.’
An English-speaking businessman, who stopped to pose for some photographs with his colleagues, was more succinct: ‘the campaign against this statue is bullshit. People will complain about anything online but how can you really have a problem with this. It’s not as if there’s a shortage of places in Jakarta for other statues.’
But perhaps the strongest defence came from Yoyo, a 38-year-old entrepreneur who had come to show the statue to his 13-year-old son, Indra.
‘As a Jakartan, I’m proud of this statue and I believe it will inspire Indonesian children to chase their dreams. I brought my son here to show him that it’s possible for someone who lives in Jakarta to go on to great things.’