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In retrospect, it’s probably just as well that US President Barack Obama has postponed his visit to Indonesia to June. The delay provides more time for Indonesians, who are intellectually exhausted by the House of Representatives probe into the Bank Century bailout and daily reports on corruption at virtually all layers of government, to reflect on Obama and the United States.

Indeed, never before has a planned visit to Indonesia by a foreign leader generated so much interest among Indonesians of different ideological shades and hues.

But then Obama is no ordinary leader, as he represents the world’s most powerful nation and spent part of his childhood here.

That he also is a member of a minority group in his country and represents a fresh face not only in US but in world politics only adds allure to an already fascinating personality that captivates most Indonesians.

In his book “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama wrote that the fate of Indonesia “has been directly tied to US foreign policy.”

In fact, Americans have had a much deeper and stronger impact, beyond their government’s foreign policy, on the lives of most Indonesians.

It is an undeniable fact that there is hardly any facet of our lives that does not bear “an American touch.”

That’s why it is often a source of amusement when some of our less enlightened countrymen whimsically call for a boycott on US products.

As they do so, they are likely to be wearing jeans and smoking Marlboro cigarettes and drinking Coca-Cola, all of which are time-honored American icons.

Were Obama to arrive here on Tuesday as was earlier planned, Air Force One would be landing at Halim Perdanakusuma airfield, a slice of an Indonesian Air Force enclave in East Jakarta that is now a fixture in Indonesian history books.

It is also the site where then-President Sukarno was whisked to by aides on Oct. 1, 1965, after military personnel, on the orders of an obscure lieutenant colonel, Untung, killed six top Army officers in the early hours of the same day.

That tumultuous event precipitated the rise to power of Suharto, then an Army major general, who went on to rule the country for more than three decades.

The US president’s memories of Indonesia revolve around that time, when most Indonesians, including Obama and his parents, led very simple lives.

It was also a time when the United States started to establish a foothold in Indonesia by way of military and economic aid, and later a business presence.

Things have never been the same since, as Sukarno faded into history and a hybrid of state planning and principles of a free economy improved the general welfare of the Indonesian people.

As Obama wrote in his book, “I would stay in Indonesia long enough to see some of the newfound prosperity firsthand.”

Although he left Indonesia in 1971, Obama followed events in Indonesia closely, so much so that he later became worried that “the land of my childhood will no longer match my memories.”

Despite modern communications, he said, “Indonesia feels more distant now than it did 30 years ago.”

In a view many Indonesians share, as they wonder what kind of people would allow themselves to be paid about Rp 50,000 ($5) to burn pictures of their president, vice president and finance minister over an issue that has no direct bearing on their lives, Indonesia, Obama notes, “is becoming a land of strangers.”

By June the US leader will perhaps also have resolved what Western media have reported as the biggest crisis between the United States and Israel in the past three decades over the latter’s decision to open new Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

The importance of Israel to the United States is often not understood by Indonesians, whose government refuses to recognize that country for fear of alienating Muslim hard-liners, thereby blurring our perspective on the turns of events in the Middle East.

Obama’s short visit to Indonesia may not change much in the way of bilateral relations in the next few years, but his good intentions alone are expected to earn much appreciation from all walks of Indonesian life.

More important, perhaps, he seems to be a person who understands us better than we understand ourselves.

 

Taufik Darusman is a veteran Jakarta-based journalist.