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Damien Dematra hasn’t been getting much sleep of late.

He’s been waiting a long time for Barack Obama’s visit.

The entrepreneur has spent the past two years drumming up interest in a visit by Jakarta’s long-lost son and churning out movies and books to keep the coals of intrigue burning bright.

A filmmaker, author, artist and national coordinator for the Movement for Pluralism, Damien is nothing if not relentless.

Critics have questioned his motive for firing out movies like “Obama Anak Menteng” (“Obama the Menteng Kid”) — a largely fictional account of the president’s childhood in the leafy Jakarta neighborhood — in a matter of days and churning out book after book praising Obama.

“A lot of people still refuse to believe that he’s coming,” says Damien, who claims to have 72 books, 28 films and 425 paintings to his name.

“They say now that they won’t believe it until he touches down. But if you ask me, I still believe.”

While some of the hype around Obama has waned in Indonesia, Damien says the former local schoolboy has continued to make strides in bridging the gap between Islam and the West, living up to the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded last year.

“He’s still proving he’s doing what he said he would,” he said. “We can see that, especially in what he did to see that the mosque near Ground Zero was built, and stepping in and saying what he said to stop the Koran-burning in the United States.

“Indonesians are proud he has some part of Indonesia in him.”

While Obama is likely to visit Istiqlal, the biggest mosque in Southeast Asia, and is set to deliver a speech at the University of Indonesia, it is unlikely he will visit his former schools.

“I really want him to come and see the kids at SD Menteng,” Damien says. “Just to come and shake their hands.”

Damien today will visit the school where Obama spent less than a year to launch “Dear President Obama,” a book inspired by the stories collected during an essay contest held at the school.

Damien also says he would also love to reunite Obama with the person he claims is the president’s long-lost nanny: Turdi, a transvestite who Damien tracked down and cast in “Obama Anak Menteng.”

“Turdi’s 64 now,” Damien says. “He’s old and he’s sick. If the two could just meet again...” Damien has also written a book on Turdi and Obama’s relationship, titled “Obama and Me.”

Damien said that he plans to hand out the Pluralism Icon Award to Obama through members of the latter’s family in Jakarta.

However, he did not say which family members they were.

His plan for Tuesday is the launch of “Obama and Pluralism,” a 5,247-page, 35-centimeter thick book he hopes will claim the crown of the world’s thickest book.

That record is currently held by Agatha Christie’s “Queen of Crime,” which is an impressive 4,032 pages long and 32 centimeters thick.

But Damien won’t stop there. He’ll spend Tuesday evening working with Ron Muller, head of the Friends of Obama organization, at the Obama homecoming party.

Once the dust from Obama’s historic visit settles, Damien plans to pick up where he left off by getting back to work on his film “Obama from Assisi,” the story of the president’s three years at the Catholic school in Tebet, Central Jakarta.