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‘Barry’ to return home

JAKARTA LIFE'S STYLE

US President Barack Obama is scheduled to land in Jakarta Tuesday, at a time when his popularity is down at home and his Indonesian counterpart is struggling to cope with two natural disasters that have killed hundreds of people.

The White House says Obama still plans to visit Indonesia despite recent eruptions from Mount Merapi that have killed more than 130 people, the AP reported Monday.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday morning that US officials were monitoring travel conditions closely, but are “proceeding with plans to depart for Indonesia” on Tuesday.

The US president, known to former schoolmates here as “Barry”, postponed his trip to Indonesia — where he lived for four years with his late mother when he was a child — twice, in March when he pushed for healthcare reform at home and in June to attend to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The visit, which many had hoped would prove an emotional journey for Obama that would include a visit to his old elementary school in Menteng, will be short.

Presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Obama was scheduled to arrive at Halim Perdanakusumah Airport in East Jakarta at noon on Tuesday before meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the Presidential Palace in Central Jakarta in the afternoon.

The two leaders will announce the Indonesia-US Comprehensive Partnership Agreement, the final draft of which was finalized in July.

Around 9,000 police officers were being prepared to secure Obama’s visit. Jakarta Police Traffic Directorate chief Sr. Comr. Royke Lumowa said the roads to be traveled by Obama’s entourage would be closed to other traffic and be subject to strict security.

“The route is from Halim to the State Palace via the Semanggi toll road exit. Later the route taken will be between the State Palace and the Shangri-La Hotel, and then back to the Palace again. The following day [Obama] will visit Istiqlal Mosque and then the University of Indonesia via the Lenteng Agung toll road.”

Obama will also visit Kalibata Heroes Cemetery and from there return to Halim airport to depart for Seoul, South Korea.

Obama plans to deliver major speeches at Istiqlal Mosque and the University of Indonesia in an effort to reach out to the Muslim world and make the US presence felt in Southeast Asia.

Local Muslim leaders, however, said they did not expect too much from Obama’s Jakarta speech, which they said would be his third attempt to speak to the Islamic world after prior addresses in Ankara and Cairo.

“He will express his strong commitment to embrace the Islamic world. But it will remain a rhetoric,” Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra told The Jakarta Post over the telephone on Monday.

The bruising defeat Obama’s Democratic Party suffered in the US mid-term elections recently would make it difficult for him to transform his eloquent rhetorics about mending ties with the Muslim world into concrete actions, he added.

Syafiq Hasyim from the International Center for Islam and Pluralism said he doubted Obama would end the conflict in the Middle East after his party’s defeat. “I don’t know what will happen with Obama’s commitment to support the Palestinians,” he said.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said Monday that two of Obama’s favorite Indonesian meals, nasi goreng (fried rice) and bakso (meat balls), would be served in a dinner for the US president.
Obama will visit Istiqlal mosque with his wife, Michelle Obama. (ebf)

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