US Features
Obama still fondly remembered at Indonesian school
Apr 21, 2008, 11:01 GMT
U.S. Democratic Senator and presidential hopeful Barack Obama of Illinois, is pictured during a campaign rally at Reading High School in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA on 20 April 2008. Obama and his democratic rival Senator Hillary Clinton of New York face a crucial contest this Tuesday when the state holds it\'s primary election. EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGH
Jakarta - The 'little curly-haired one' is well remembered by his Indonesian teacher Israella Darmawan.
It was in 1968 when Barack Obama joined her class, and she likes the idea that he soon might become the world's most powerful person.
'We hope and pray that he will become the best US president of all time,' says Darmawan.
Obama's mother married an Indonesian after her divorce from his African father.
Darmawan used to be Obama's teacher while he attended the Catholic St Francis of Assisi school in Jakarta's up-scale Menteng district.
Today neatly uniformed students - red trousers or skirts and white shirts or blouses - can be seen running in the hallways of the 'Sekolah Assisi' (Assisi School).
Darmawan, 64, who retired last year, now only returns to her former school to tell current pupils about their famous alumnus.
She takes a faded book from a shelf, the school register dating back to 1968.
Under registration number 203 it reads in large-lettered handwriting: 'Barry Soetoro.'
'Barry' used to be Obama's nickname, which he used together with his stepfather's last name.
Obama's charming personality, which nowadays mesmerizes US voters, must already have been evident all those years ago, because he was able to immediately capture his teacher's attention.
'He always helped me cleaning the blackboard, because he was so tall,' says Darmawan.
Obama was a polite, friendly and benevolent student. His former teacher says she can't recall him playing any pranks.
'He was one of my brightest students, especially at mathematics,' she asserts.
Darmawan is keeping her fingers crossed for Obama's victory, just like virtually every current student at the school.
The question 'Who is Barack Obama?' puts broad grins into the faces of the students of the 4th grade of his former school.
'US President!' the ten- and eleven-year-olds shout in unison.
Despite their young age, they already know Obama well from the TV news and eagerly follow his election campaign.
'He should drop by here sometime,' exclaims one of the pupils, Jonas.
But Darmawan has little hope for that to happen.
'I think he's forgotten us long ago,' she says.
But just in case he might turn up one day, she adds after some hesitation: 'He ought to bring more peace to the world.'
The comment ties in well with the opinion of the principal of the other school Obama attended in Jakarta. He left Assisi School for SDN (State Elementary School) Besuk in the late 1960s.
'Barry's classmates were Muslims and Christians alike, that's why he has learned tolerance for different religions,' says SDN principal Kuwadiyanto, 53, who hopes that Obama's possible election victory will have a positive effect on US-Indonesian relations.
Some right-wingers in the US have tried to depict the school, today known as SDN Menteng 01, as a kind of Madrassa facility for the training of Muslim extremists.
'That is of course absolute nonsense. Menteng has always been a school that welcomed and tutored children from all religions,' asserts Kuwadiyanto.
Fourth-grader Sara says she knows almost everything about the school's famous former student.
'He even might have once sat on my chair once,' she smirks. The entire class laughs.
She says she plans to write Obama a letter and invite him to visit his former school.
'That would be cool, but as US president he might be just too busy,' she muses.
Darmawan recalls an essay that young 'Barry' once wrote, and which has stuck in her mind ever since.
The subject was an old classic: 'What I want to be once I've grown up.'
According to his former teacher, Obama wrote: 'I will become president.'
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in US
- 1. Mitt Romney Addresses Tea Party Summit Pictures
- 2. Seven injured as US Navy plane crashes into apartments
- 3. At least three injured in US Navy plane crash
- 4. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, others to face death penalty trial
- 5. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, four others to face death penalty trial
Older Talkback
page: 1
'The comment ties in well with the opinion of the principal of the other school Obama attended in Jakarta. He left Assisi School for SDN (State Elementary School) Besuk in the late 1960s..[...]
Some right-wingers in the US have tried to depict the school, today known as SDN Menteng 01, as a kind of Madrassa facility for the training of Muslim extremists. '
'Right-wingers' ??? Most of that has come from the Clinton camp (bias alert) BUT in this case they have a point. 'Madrassah' means a school with a religous component. By all accounts Obama attended an Indonesian madrassah where he was registered as a Muslim by his parents. Abridged from he LA times:
'When he was at a public school for a year, he [Obama] learned about Islam.
Obama's stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, was much more of a free spirit than a devout Muslim, according to former friends and neighbors. And the school described as an Islamic madrassa in media reports actually was a public school, so progressive that teachers wore miniskirts and all students were encouraged to celebrate Christmas.
Interviews with dozens of former classmates, teachers, neighbors and friends show that Obama was not a regular practicing Muslim when he was in Indonesia, despite being listed as a Muslim on the registration form for the Catholic school, Strada Asisia, where he attended 1st through 3rd grades.
At the time, the school most likely registered children based on the religion of their fathers, said Darmawan, Obama's former teacher. Because Soetoro was a Muslim, Obama was listed as a Muslim, she said.
The enrollment form from the Catholic school, which has been cited as evidence that Obama was a Muslim in Indonesia, also was rife with errors. It listed Obama as an Indonesian, listed his previous school incorrectly and failed to list his mother, Ann, at all.
Mosque visits rare
Obama and his mother moved from Honolulu to Jakarta to join Soetoro in 1967, when Obama was 6. Here, Obama became 'Barry Soetoro.'
In their first neighborhood, Obama occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers, a few neighbors said. But Soetoro usually was too busy working, first for the Indonesian army and later for a Western oil company.'...
www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/chi-0703250340mar25,1,4131029.story
Abridged, from Danial Pipes:
'Further, family and friends considered him as a child to be Muslim. In “Obama Debunks Claim About Islamic School,” Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press wrote on January 24, 2007, that
Obama’s mother, divorced from Obama’s father, married a man from Indonesia named Lolo Soetoro, and the family relocated to the country from 1967-71. At first, Obama attended the Catholic school, Fransiskus Assisis, where documents showed he enrolled as a Muslim, the religion of his stepfather. The document required that each student choose one of five state-sanctioned religions when registering – Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic or Protestant.
Asked about this, Obama communications director Robert Gibbs responded by indicating to Pickler that he wasn’t sure why the document had Obama listed as a Muslim. “Senator Obama has never been a Muslim.”
Two months later, Paul Watson of the Los Angeles Times (available online in a Baltimore Sun reprint) reported that the Obama campaign had retreated from that absolute statement and instead issued a more nuanced one: “Obama has never been a practicing Muslim.” The Times looked into the matter further and learned more about his Indonesian interlude:
His former Roman Catholic and Muslim teachers, along with two people who were identified by Obama’s grade-school teacher as childhood friends, say Obama was registered by his family as a Muslim at both schools he attended. That registration meant that during the third and fourth grades, Obama learned about Islam for two hours each week in religion class.
The childhood friends say Obama sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque. “We prayed but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque,” Zulfin Adi said. “But as kids, we loved to meet our friends and went to the mosque together and played.” … Obama’s younger sister, Maya Soetoro, said in a statement released by the campaign that the family attended the mosque only “for big communal events,” not every Friday.
Recalling Obama’s time in Indonesia, the Times account contains quotes that Obama “went to the mosque,” and that he “was Muslim.”
www.danielpipes.org/article/5286
Abridged from the Baltimore sun:
'His former Roman Catholic and Muslim teachers, along with two people who were identified by Obama's grade-school teacher as childhood friends, say Obama was registered by his family as a Muslim at both of the schools he attended.
That registration meant that during the third and fourth grades, Obama learned about Islam for two hours each week in religion class.
The childhood friends say Obama sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque. 'We prayed but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque. But as kids, we loved to meet our friends and went to the mosque together and played,' said Zulfin Adi, who describes himself as among Obama's closest childhood friends.'[...]
'In his autobiography, Dreams From My Father, Obama briefly mentions Koranic study and describes his public school, which accepted students of all religions, as 'a Muslim school.'
'In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell my mother that I made faces during Koranic studies,' Obama wrote. 'My mother wasn't overly concerned. 'Be respectful,' she'd say. In the Catholic school, when it came time to pray, I would close my eyes, then peek around the room. Nothing happened. No angels descended. Just a parched old nun and 30 brown children, muttering words.'
'Neighborhood Muslims worshiped in a nearby house, which has since been replaced by a larger mosque. Sometimes, when the muezzin sounded the call to prayer, Lolo and Barry would walk to the makeshift mosque together, Adi [Obamas half sister] said.
'His mother often went to the church, but Barry was Muslim. He went to the mosque,' Adi said. 'I remember him wearing a sarong.''
www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.obama16mar16,0,1634059,print.st ory?coll=bal_news_nation_promo
'This Obama guy
sounds like a well rounded individual and could possibly be America's best president ever'
Some more quotes from george robson:
'rev Wrights statement that 9/11 was the chickens coming home to roost is dead on'
'quit your whining,Jewdumb gets... BILLIONS..of taxpayers money year on year.'
'Quit Waffling on about Israel, its a fake name given to to about 70% of Palestine by the U.N.in a moment of weakness and shame.'
'I would have responded to your post sooner but you see I am on holiday in Haifa yes the heart of Jewdumb Nice city probably paid for by the naive American taxpayers..'
'We can learn from the jewdumbs???
'It just proves what Most people on the Planet already know that they [the Jews] are a race of craven cowards hiding behind.. U.S money and technology.. '
'Hopefully while the Jewdumbs are squabling and NAME BLAMING each other...They will stay out of Arab lands...'
'shame on Bush and his Neo Cons for bowing to those cockroaches... [Zionist lobbyists] ...by not recognising the Hamas elected Gov.'
'...Either way Ahmadinejad seems like a reasonable guy ...pulverising his country would play into the hands of the jewdumbs,'
'I See the craven cowards ... WARRIERS OF JEWDUMB... are at it again ,'
On and on and on...
So this inveterate anti-American and Jew hating bigot wants Obama? What does that tell you?
Try walking upright, you may actually fool someone if you don't speak....
Nedra Pickler---right wing neo-con.
Daniel Pipes---right wing neocon, adviser to Giuliani's presidential campaign.
Studied Islam 2 hours a week for a couple of years.
Hey :-D, not quite the 'facts' needed to persuade anyone that you even have the smallest of points.
Who gives a damn what religious education Obama had. I remember a time when John Kennedy's Catholicism was a scarey topic to the US voter. A lot of people feared that the Pope would be moving into the Whitewhorehouse. Get real people. Get over your petty prejudices, ignorance and outright stupidity.
'Nedra Pickler---right wing neo-con.'
Did you even read what was written? Of course not, then you would have realized that Nedra Pickler wasn't the author.
'Daniel Pipes---right wing neocon, adviser to Giuliani's presidential campaign.'
So do you have an issue with something he said? No? Just that he is saying it?
Studied Islam 2 hours a week for a couple of years.'
Which would make him more of an expert then you are by far. If he is so unqualified it should be easy for you to come up with a rebuttal to what he wrote rather then whining that he wrote it.
'Hey :-D, not quite the 'facts' needed to persuade anyone that you even have the smallest of points.'
They are not even in dispute by the Obama. You just bury your head in your backside whenever you are exposed to something you do not want to hear.
A Muslime in the WhiteHouse.
Switch on America before your Country goes to the dogs like the UK and Europe.
Muslime problems at every corner, this bloke will be a soft, appeasing, kowtowing, leftwing fool.
The Iranians will be cheering if you lot vote him in thats for sure.
Vote for the Republicans and try and save your country from these losers.
Andrea Mitchell really likes Obama too.
I hope that the remaining voters will think about why the wife of Alan Greenspan would be supporting a supposedly liberal candidate. And why Obama's biggest financial supporters are large corporations and Wall Street.
These guys are experts at figuring out how to siphon off every penny they can from the middle class and giving it to the developers and pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies and on and on.
That is his big plan, to increase our taxes and set up programs that reward his rich friends. If you haven't read the book Free Lunch yet check it out. That's why the corporate media has loved Obama all along.
Come on people. Wake up.
Judah Ben-Hur from the American Republic for President, 2012!
probably a cute little boy.
As a Roman Catholic - Chinese Indonesian who live in Indonesia, let me just clarify some things for you all.
First of all, SDN Menteng is not a madrasah. Someone in the comment mentioned that because someone was taught about Islam, it makes the school a madrasah. That is wrong. SDN is a secular school, with religious studies in the curriculum. There were Madrasah in Indonesia, but they are totally different in nature to the state school. They studied the content (and memorized) Al Quran in most of the curriculum.
I went to a Catholic school and they taught us about ALL the religions that were approved by the government, including Islam, Christianity (Catholic and Protestant), Hinduism, and Buddhism. Yes there was a bigger portion given to teaching Catholicism, but there were at most 40% catholics on each class. Once a month, all students were brought to church to follow mass, but none of the non-Catholics were forced to become Catholics. The same applies to State schools like all SDNs (abbreviation for State Elemantary School).
What's sad is that I have to elaborate the difference of schools in Indonesia for a presidential candidate to a nation who claim to have a separation between church and state.
page: 1
george robsonApr 21st, 2008 - 22:46:53
This Obama guy
sounds like a well rounded individual and could possibly be America's best president ever.
Report this comment