Obama-Obama Indonesia, Inspirasi atau Tantangan ?

Isu perubahan yang dibawa Obama nampaknya akan menjadi inspirasi para politikus dunia, termasuk Indonesia untuk memajukan demokrasi. Munculnya politikus-politikus muda di Indonesia menjelang pelaksanaan pemilu legislatif dan pemilu presiden 2009, sedikit banyak nampaknya telah terinpirasi dari kemenangan Obama menjadi Presiden Amerika Serikat.

Pada 20 Januari 2009 waktu setempat Barack Hussein Obama resmi dilantik sebagai Presiden Amerika Serikat ke-44. Banyak kalangan menilai sangat positif pelantikan Barack Hussein Obama sebagai penggerak perubahan dunia yang lebih baik, meskipun fokus utama yang akan dilakukan Obama memperbaiki ekonomi Amerika sendiri. Namun masyarakat internasional beharap permasalahan dunia juga menjadi perhatian Obama, termasuk penyelesaian masalah Palestina. Bagi bangsa Indonesia, pelantikan Obama sebagai presiden jelas sangat berbeda nuansanya jika dibandingkan dengan upacara-upacara pelantikan presiden AS sebelumnya. Sebab, Obama memiliki ayah tiri orang Indonesia dan Obama sendiri menghabiskan masa kecilnya di Menteng, Jakarta Pusat. Obama diharapkan jauh lebih memahami dan berempati terhadap jalan pikiran, harapan, impian, dan perjuangan rakyat Indonesia jika dibandingkan dengan presiden-presiden AS sebelumnya. Isu perubahan yang dibawa Obama diharapkan akan memunculkan adanya tatanan politik global baru, lebih adil, manusiawi, dan bermartabat. Masyarakat Indonesia juga berharap pengaruh Obama sebagai Presiden Amerika Serikat akan menjadikan hubungan antara Indonesia dengan Amerika lebih baik dan saling menguntungkan, serta diharapkan dapat diimplementasikan menjadi program konkret yang mampu meningkatkan kesejahteraan rakyat kedua negara, khususnya bagi rakyat Indonesia. Indonesia sebagai negara dengan penduduk muslim terbesar di dunia, mestinya mendapat perhatian Obama dan tidak mengabaikan Indonesia, apalagi posisi geografisnya yang begitu penting dan strategis. Namun, kalau Indonesia masih tetap seperti sekarang ini kondisinya, khususnya dalam hal membangun diri, maka siapa pun tidak akan memberi perhatian khusus kepada Indonesia, dan Indonesia akan tetap dianggap tak lebih sekedar sebagai pasar bagi berbagai produk barang dan jasa negara-negara maju dan besar. Harapan baru menyambut kehadiran Obama yang pernah tinggal dan bersekolah di Jakarta itu menjadi penghuni Gedung Putih kebanggaan paman Sam. Perubahan yang Obama janjikan telah memunculkan harapan adanya tatanan politik internasional yang baik dan dilandasi keadilan. Masyarakat Indonesia ingin dalam hubungan antarnegara dalam menghadapi berbagai persoalan global bisa diselesaikan secara bersama, tidak lagi unilateral. Masyarakat dunia sepakat perdamaian di dunia adalah harga mati yang tidak bisa ditolak. Dunia berharap perubahan, tapi mungkin Obama tidak mampu melakukan itu sepenuhnya. Mengharapkan Obama akan memberikan privilese, bantuan, kemudahan, serta perhatian lebih untuk membuat agenda-agenda yang pro-Indonesia dalam kebijakan luar negerinya adalah sikap tidak proporsional. Hillary Rodham Clinton yang akan menjadi menteri luar negeri dalam kabinet Obama pun baru-baru ini secara eksplisit mengakui pentingnya posisi strategis Indonesia bagi Amerika Serikat. Indonesia harus dapat memanfaatkan situasi dan tidak membiarkan modal sosial dan emosional yang terjalin antara Obama dan Jakarta berlalu begitu saja. Sebab, dari sana dapat tercipta hubungan setara saling menguntungkan antara kedua bangsa yang jauh lebih baik, rileks, terbuka, positif, dan produktif daripada sebelumnya. Dengan perspektif itu, peningkatan hubungan antara pemerintah Indonesia-Amerika, pengusaha Indonesia dan Amerika, maupun hubungan antar individu rakyat Indonesia-Ameriaka yang selama ini hanya merupakan basa-basi diplomatik, diharapkan dapat diimplementasikan menjadi program nyata yang mampu meningkatkan kesejahteraan rakyat Indonesia maupun Amerika. Pekerjaan rumah (PR) Obama sebagai Presiden Amerika Serikat, terbesarnya adalah membenahi ekonomi domestik negaranya yang hancur lebur karena krisis keuangan yang dipicu kredit macet sektor perumahan. Di kancah politik global, Obama harus segera menjadwalkan penarikan pasukan AS dari Irak, namun memperkuat kehadiran di Afghanistan, mendekati Iran, mendekati Korea Utara, menjalin hubungan yang lebih baik dan berimbang dengan China (khususnya di bidang ekonomi dan perdagangan). Kini seluruh dunia menanti langkah-langkah Obama dan tim kabinetnya yang dianggap banyak kalangan sangat kredibel. Negara-negara Asia seperti India, China, Jepang, Korea Utara, ASEAN, termasuk Indonesia, mengharapkan kerja sama lebih erat dalam mengatasi krisis global serta menciptakan stabilitas kawasan. Dunia berharap Amerika di bawah pimpinan Obama tidak lagi memainkan peran sebagai “koboy dunia” yang bisa semaunya mengintervensi urusan dapur negara lain. Obama hendaknya tidak menyia-nyiakan harapan besar yang dititipkan bangsa Amerika dan dunia kepadanya. Obama telah menjadi ikon dunia baru untuk perubahan, perubahan menuju pembaruan. Banyak yang berandai-andai, agar pengaruh besar yang dimiliki Amerika Serikat akan digunakan lebih konstruktif di bawah Presiden Obama. Banyak pejabat Indonesia yang juga ikut menitipkan harapan itu. Memang banyak masalah dunia penting bagi Indonesia, seperti masalah Israel dan Palestina. Tetapi, bagi Amerika, juga bagi Obama, yang terpenting adalah urusan Amerika sendiri. Karena itu, harapan perubahan untuk isu-isu internasional masih menjadi pekerjaan berikutnya yang dilakukan Obama. Meski begitu, keberhasilan Obama meraih posisi tertinggi untuk menjadi presiden, tetap sangat layak jadi inspirasi masyarakat Indonesia. Dengan membangun sistem masyarakat yang demokratis, adil, tidak korup, serta tidak diskriminatif akan memungkinkan setiap orang dapat menggapai impiannya. Keberhasilan Obama meraih impiannya menjadi pemimpin besar Amerika maupun dunia, selayaknya menjadi inspirasi masyarakat dan pemuda Indonesia untuk maju dan tampil sebagai motor penggerak perubahan menuju yang lebih baik. Rakyat Indonesia juga ditantang memperbaiki diri membangun bangsa, menjadi bangsa yang besar dan disegani dunia. Pemerintah Indonesia harus bisa memanfaat jalinan emosional Obama dengan Indonesia, untuk kepentingan masyarakat, bangsa dan negara, yang adil, makmur, damai dan sejartera.

Obama wins House passage of economic stimulus

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama scored his first major legislative victory on Wednesday with passage of an $825 billion (581 billion pound) economic stimulus package by a sharply divided U.S. House of Representatives on a 244-188 vote.

Obama, who took office eight days ago, was denied, at least for now, his goal of bipartisanship. Every Republican who voted opposed the landmark bill, complaining it contained too much new spending and not enough tax cuts.

All but 11 of Obama's fellow Democrats in the House supported the bill to combat the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The Senate begins debate next week.

Obama, seeking to build support, said, "I hope that we can continue to strengthen this plan before it gets to my desk" to be signed into law.

"But what we can't do is drag our feet or allow the same partisan differences to get in our way," Obama added in a statement issued by the White House. "We must move swiftly and boldly to put Americans back to work, and that is exactly what this plan begins to do."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said Obama sought bold and swift action and "that is exactly what action we are taking today."

On his first visit to the Capitol as president on Tuesday, Obama failed to ease Republican concerns the package included too little in tax cuts, $275 billion, and too much in spending, $550 billion.

They at least agreed to keep talking to each other.

The Democratic-led Senate is expected to approve a similar version of the bill, one costing $887 billion. It includes a one-year fix to insulate middle-class taxpayers from the Alternative Minimum Tax, which originally was aimed at the wealthy but is affecting a growing number of middle-class taxpayers because of inflation.

Once the Senate passes its bill, House and Senate negotiators must resolve differences and approve a final measure that can be sent to Obama.

'SITUATION IS DIRE'

During a daylong debate, House Democrats rejected Republican efforts to strip out the new spending -- which includes money to rebuild crumbling roads and bridges and upgrade healthcare and schools -- and instead approve a package essentially restricted to about $478 billion in tax cuts.

House Republican leader John Boehner said his party's approach would create an estimated 6.2 million jobs.

"That's twice as many as the (Democratic) bill that is on the (House) floor now for about half the price," Boehner told reporters.

Earlier in the day at the White House, Obama got a boost from corporate heads.

"The message has to be that the situation is dire," David Cote, chief executive of Honeywell, said after a meeting with Obama and other business leaders. "Everybody is being touched by this."

Ending the 13-month U.S. recession will be difficult and economists disagree over how to do it.

In a full-page ad in Wednesday's New York Times, a group of economists said they "do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance." The ad was paid for by the Cato Institute, which supports policies to limit government.

On Friday, the federal government is due to release an estimate of economic performance that economists expect will show the economy contracted at an annual rate of 5.4 percent last year. That would put the U.S. economy closer to the 6.4 percent contraction in 1931, which was followed by 13 percent in 1932, during the Great Depression.

The House-passed bill would spend $825 billion over the next few years with a combination of emergency spending and tax cuts to create and save up to 4 million jobs.

"This $825 billion package is not too large ... in fact it's probably smaller than it ought to be," House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey said.

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday on optimism the new administration was moving quickly to stabilise banking and on hopes for a stimulus package soon. (http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/)

News Analysis: Can Obama bring U.S. out of crisis?

Barack Obama on Tuesday was sworn in as the first African American president in U.S. history amidst daunting challenges that include a worsening recession and two wars in distant countries.

Despite the history Obama made by becoming president, the "testing stone" that his fellow citizens will use to judge his administration will be whether or not he can bring the U.S. out of its financial crisis.

REASSURE PEOPLE, RESTORE CONFIDENCE

In his inaugural address, labeled by some as "a speech ushering in an Obama Era," the new president made a cool-headed and objective analysis of the current U.S. situation.

"Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age," the president said.

Obama said the U.S. is facing "a sapping of confidence ... a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights."

However, he said, despite the troubles all of the difficulties "will be met."

"We gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord," he told the throngs that massed in Washington to bear witness to the historic inauguration.

Analysts said the problems facing the U.S. are intricate and no panacea can be easily found. The first thing Obama needs do to prevent the crisis from deteriorating is to reassure Americans that things will get better.

As long as Obama can unite as many forces as possible, he can reduce political resistance to the process of tackling the crisis, analysts said.

One U.S. political commentator said Obama obviously followed the trail that former President Franklin Roosevelt blazed when he delivered his inaugural speech during the Great Depression in 1933.

The commentator called Obama's move to reassure America "a new interpretation" of Roosevelt's famous saying that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

In fact, Obama has endeavored to create a stable and harmonious political atmosphere since he was elected.

The San Francisco Chronicle said the "inaugural address blends inspiration, humility. It was just the right tone for these perilous times."

SEEKING FOR NEW WAYS TO TACKLE CRISIS

In the address, Obama stressed his "new economic policy."

He also acknowledged the daunting challenges facing the nation, including war, the recession, health care, home foreclosures, jobs, and energy among others. He said that the country was "in the midst of crisis is now well understood."

The president called for "bold and swift" action on the economy, "not only to create new jobs, but also to lay a new foundation for growth."

Obama said it was time "to build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines, restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost."

The president pledged to "harness the sun and the winds and the soil" and "transform schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age."

He also said he would take a pragmatic stance on the economy. The question ahead, Obama said, is not "whether the market is a force for good or ill."

The only right thing to do, he said, is to exert the great market power of making wealth while learning lessons from the current financial crisis.

"The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart," Obama said.

Concerning foreign policy, Obama listed major goals, including "begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people," and "forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan" as well as work with the international community to prevent nuclear proliferation.

He expressed the will to resolve disputes through cooperation and dialogue. He said he would firmly defend the U.S. leadership and fiercely fight against terrorism and "hostile countries."

Concerning the Islamic world, the president said he would "seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect."

He also promised to lend a helping hand to under-developed countries while calling on developed nations to work together to address international concerns.

Though his inaugural speech largely sounded conciliatory, Obama struck tougher notes when he warned that the U.S. would defeat those who use "terror" and would never give in to "unfriendly nations."

A GOOD START IS HALF THE SUCCESS

Obama's speech set the tone for his future policies, the analysts said. However, what determines the success or failure of Obama's administration will be his performance in office, especially during the first months.

History indicates that a new president's popularity and power to overcome opposition is usually at its peak during his first three months in office. As an American Broadcasting Company (ABC) News poll showed, up to 80 percent of Americans have expressed confidence in Obama while about 71 percent back the president's "new policies."

Reports said the Obama administration is expected to launch a massive stimulus plan to fulfill the president's campaign promises.

Obama's schedule for "Day 1" includes meetings with his economic and national security teams and high-ranking military officers. That's to discuss his planned stimulus package, as well as the next steps for the unfinished wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an aide said.

Within his first week in office, Obama was also expected to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and forbid the use of interrogation techniques denounced widely as torture.

He also was expected to appoint senior diplomat Dennis Ross as a special envoy to the Middle East and task George Mitchell, a former senator, with mediating peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Obama will also act swiftly to sign legislation to expand medical care for children from poor families. He will also overturn President George W. Bush's ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Within his first month in office, the new president will also urge Congress to pass an economic stimulus package that calls for even more massive funds.

However, the new president is also facing some unfavorable factors during his early days in office. Democratic leaders in Congress still oppose Obama on some details of his economic stimulus plan. Meanwhile, they are also discontented with him for not looking into misconduct within the Bush administration.

The "Obama era" seems to be blessed from its very beginning because the inauguration ceremony saw an unprecedented massive audience and the new president's speech were well received.

However, the world is still waiting to see whether the new administration can make a good start and finally lead the United States out of the economic crisis.(http://english.sina.com/world/p/2009/0121/213312.html)

ANALYSIS: Obama could bring change for Indonesia too

November could see the election of the United States’ first African-American president. Although some American voters view his upbringing in the predominately Muslim Indonesia as a dark side to his past, many Indonesians hope that Barack Obama can bring them change, as Ayden Fabien Férdeline discusses.

Barack Obama is everyone’s son in the bustling streets of Jakarta. In this teeming metropolis of 23 million, many people – young and old, male and female, rich and poor – want to share in the pride of having a neighbour become the world’s most powerful person, even if they had no knowledge of the boy when he lived here forty years ago.

Jakarta is an unusual city. With poverty, corruption, sleaze and injustice so tightly woven into the city’s tapestry, optimism is often low, and politics can be restricted to the elite. Politicians are despised. But Indonesians want change. They want more opportunities. They want Obama.

The United States of America, if anything, is synonymous with influence. Political decisions made in the U.S.A. have an incredible impact on other nations, particularly those developing in South East Asia. With Obama at the helm of the White House, Indonesians are confident that change will transpire, not just in the U.S.A., but abroad also.

Overall, Indonesians sincerely believe Obama will bring world peace. Kompas, the most widely-read publication in the nation, the newspaper of the poor and working classes, published an editorial in June this year outlining how “the nightmare under George W. Bush will pass as bitter history never to be repeated”, and how Obama “means peace.”

Many Indonesians forget that, as an American senator, Obama has always supported those policies of most benefit to the United States, and will no doubt continue to do so. Inevitably, his interests may run counter to Indonesia’s. But he is still the ‘son’ of a nation struggling to recover from the damage inflicted by dictator Suharto. In the years since his presidency, attempts to recover the $35 billion Suharto embezzled have failed. Charges of corruption and genocide did not proceed. The current Indonesian administration has made little effort to improve labour conditions, end discrimination, or improve the standard of living for the majority of its citizens. Obama, who represents the Democratic Party, will be more focussed upon repairing international issues of human rights, labour and trade than the Republicans – and Indonesians know this.

“Our country has been led by the nose by the United States. It won't happen anymore if he becomes the U.S. president,” said Sonny Imam Sukarso, an elementary school classmate of Obama’s in Jakarta in the 1960s, speaking to Agence France-Presse just hours after Obama declared victory in becoming the Democratic Party’s nominee.

Obama has distanced himself from Indonesia in recent months, having considered the negative repercussions he could suffer from having ties to the world’s most populous Muslim nation. However, he has not apologised for his active relationship with the country. He has not said anything negative towards the country. Rather, his campaign recognises that middle-class America can be – albeit perhaps unintentionally – bigoted. The average American does not want international change, but improvements on the domestic front – even if the latter is intrinsically intertwined with the former. For now, if he is to bring the world change, he must first convince Americans that he will not.

In his memoir Dreams from My Father, Obama characterised his upbringing in the archipelagic state as the “bounty of a young man’s life.” Amid paranoia and unfounded misconceptions regarding Islam in the United States, Obama will enter the White House with a more neutral position on the religion. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, on the other hand, is widely perceived as being ignorant of and, indeed, hostile towards Islam.

Obama represents hope not just for Indonesians and, of course, Americans, but also for Africa. In Kenya, where Obama also has ties, he will inevitably become a role model for minority groups and the underprivileged.

It remains to be seen whether Obama will become the 45th President of the United States of America. Ordinary Indonesians have no real knowledge of the U.S. elections. All they have is hope. Hope that Obama can bring them the changes that their government has failed to implement. The mere fact that someone who lived in Jakarta could emerge as such a powerful figure is an endless source of pride for most Indonesians. Whether or not it becomes a reality is, momentarily at least, irrelevant.

Obama's day and Martin Luther King's day

Such coincidences are not accidental. Nobody aligned Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 19 with the first Black American President's inauguration on January 20. King symbolized the struggle for Black America's civil rights.

In reality, he was born on January 15, 1929, and died on April 4, 1968. But Americans like to celebrate their holidays and elect their presidents on certain weekdays rather than on the specific dates. When Ronald Reagan decided to sign the holiday into law on November 2, 1983, he chose the third Monday of January, that is, close to the civil rights leader's birthday.

In 2009, America's two Black sons, appeared to be aligned. There is only a one-day difference between King's birthday and Obama's inauguration, which is amazing.

During the election race, Obama meticulously avoided presenting himself as a representative of one race. But when a crowd of 400,000 people gathered near the White House, he focused on Martin Luther King Jr both because of the coincidence, and deliberately. But this subject sounded very different from what could have been expected in the 1960s when King's was in his prime.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll on the eve of the inauguration shows that race remains an issue in the U.S., at least in people's minds. When asked whether racism is a problem, 22% of White respondents said "yes" compared with 44% of Blacks. Asked when equality will be achieved, 38% of Whites said it has already been achieved as compared to 20% of Blacks; 36% of Whites and 38% of Blacks said it will be achieved soon. Asked whether they personally felt race discrimination, 30% of Whites and 74% of Blacks answered in the positive.

To sum up, the picture is very mixed, especially if this poll is compared with a similar one from 1996. It appears that optimism regarding race has become almost twice as strong, among both Whites and Blacks.

In the 1960s, King's son, born in 1958, believed that his father was fighting to enable him to visit a local amusement park like his White friends. In Atlanta and other cities in the south Blacks were not allowed to do this. To say nothing of the park, they could not even vote until 1965. It goes without saying that America has covered a lot of ground since then. Obama's election is the most obvious evidence of this but it is not the only thing.

The White/Black problem is gradually being replaced with new issues. In two or three decades, Latin Americans will prevail in U.S. society. People from all parts of Africa, which Dutch and other merchants brought to the New World's plantations, are much more confident of themselves as being native Americans than people from Central and South America that mostly speak Spanish or Portuguese. Additionally, there are Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipinos, East Europeans... These are also U.S. residents.

Why has Obama started speaking about his race now? He told The Washington Post that he would like his presidency to bridge racial and other gaps. "Race relations become a subset of a larger problem in our society, which is that we have a diverse, complicated society where people have a lot of different viewpoints," he said.

A main point of Obama's inauguration speech, which became known a couple of days before January 20, was justice. This is a very topical subject as December suddenly set an unemployment record. Anyone can be laid off regardless of skin color.

This is a good time to recall who Martin Luther King Jr was and what he was fighting for. His statue, in white stone, stands in Westminster Abbey in London among other "martyrs of the 20th century." It is still not clear who killed him in April 1968. The story seems to be as vague as that of the Kennedy brothers. There is a convict but no conclusive evidence. When a postmortem was carried out after the assassination attempt and an unsuccessful operation in the hospital, it appeared that this 38 year-old reverend had the heart of a 60 year-old. It goes without saying that he was a genius in all respects. At 15 he was in college, at 22 he became a bachelor of divinity, at 26 doctor of philosophy, and at 35 a Nobel Prize winner, the youngest in history. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his non-violent struggle against race segregation and discrimination.

King's political career reached its peak with the march on Washington, and his speech at the Lincoln Monument: "I have a dream." It is considered one of the three most influential speeches in U.S. history.

What was his dream? Did he want American Blacks to live better than Whites, or Whites to live worse than Blacks? Did he want both races to be equal? Martin Luther King wanted a just America for all.

It was clear in the 1960s what race was the hardest hit by a lack of justice. But today, we can understand King better, and interpret his American Dream as one of equal opportunity.

Incidentally, in the last year or two before his death, King fought not so much for Black rights as against poverty for all races, and against the Vietnam War.

This is what Obama is driving at. His proclaimed initiatives are in favor of the poorest part of the working class. This is why he was backed not only by his Black compatriots but also by all those who wish to improve U.S. society, not simply race relations. It is already clear that Obama will consider this his presidency's mission although the outside world may want something else from him, for instance, cessation of U.S. interference in everyone else's affairs.

There are some indicative moments in Obama's biography. His dark skin has nothing to do with American slavery. Obama is the son of a White woman and a Kenyan man who bore no relation to those who toiled on the plantations of the American South. He was brought up in Hawaii, and spent many years in Indonesia. In this sense, he is an offspring of globalization at a time when the one-state-one-nation formula has almost become meaningless. According to the 2000 U.S. census, 6.83 million Americans consider themselves as having two ethnic origins. What about outside America? Take France where the number of North African Muslims is growing with every passing year.

Few people in the world can predict what these changes will bring, and how to approach them. This is why they are looking to the link between Martin Luther King and Barack Hussein Obama with expectation.