Lisa Murray, theage.com.au, January 22, 2009
Joy: Indonesians and Americans watch the inauguration ceremony in Jakarta. Photo: Reuters
THE Star-Spangled Banner rang out from Barack Obama's old primary school in central Jakarta yesterday as the US President's former classmates celebrated his inauguration.
About 250 students from Fransiskus Asisi Catholic school, which a young Barack Obama attended during his four years in Indonesia through to mid-1971, stayed up until midnight on Tuesday to watch the inauguration speech on a big screen in their school hall.
At a Friends of Obama ball at the Ritz Carlton, an audio message from his Indonesian half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, was played to the audience, while a letter from Mr Obama to Indonesia was read out by a friend.
"My childhood years in Jakarta provided me with many lessons and memories that I carry with me to this day," the letter said. "I have heard through my sister Maya that many of you have expressed support for the change that has come and for that, I am grateful."
At Jalan Besuki school yesterday, old photos of Barack Obama as a third grader were displayed along with posters of a map, depicting his move from the small street in Menteng to Pennsylvania Avenue.
"We are just so proud that someone from our class could become president of the United States and deliver such a great speech," former classmate Deby Sadrach told The Age.
"This school was part of his extraordinary development," said another, Dewi Asmara Oetojo, now an MP in Indonesia's parliament.
The US ambassador to Indonesia, Cameron Hume, said at the event that he expected Mr Obama would visit the country this year, though there were no firm plans. There had been some speculation that Jakarta might be on the President's agenda for the first 100 days of his presidency after his aides said in December that he planned to make a major foreign policy speech in an Islamic capital.
But Jakarta is competing with the likes of Cairo, Baghdad and Islamabad, which commentators say are closer to the action.
"Obviously he has a history (in Indonesia) and a degree of familiarity with and affection for the country," said Indonesia analyst Damien Kingsbury, from the School of International Political Studies at Deakin University, "but strategically he would be better off going to the Middle East."
John Virgoe from the International Crisis Group in Jakarta said a visit to Indonesia "would be a powerful message that America recognises that the Muslim world is more than just a series of dictatorships and conflicts in the Middle East".
About 100 people marched to the embassy in Jakarta yesterday to hand over a letter urging Mr Obama to close down Guantanamo Bay.
With KARUNI ROMPIES
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