Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
July 17, 2017
Obama pushes tolerance, respect in childhood home Jakarta
NOSTALGIC VISIT. Former U.S. President
Barack Obama walks during his visit to Prambanan
Temple in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Obama and his fam-
ily vacationed in the country where he lived for several
years as a child. (AP Photo)
By Margie Mason
The Associated Press
J
AKARTA, Indonesia — Following
another week of dust-ups between
the media and President Donald
Trump, his predecessor shared a bit of
wisdom from the other side of the world
about tolerance and taking the daily news
cycle in stride.
“I wasn’t worried about what was in the
newspapers today,” former President
Barack Obama said during a nostalgic
visit to Indonesia’s capital, his childhood
home. “What I was worried about was,
‘What are they going to write about me 20
years from now when I look back?”’
Obama has largely stayed away from
U.S. politics and the Trump administra-
tion, but he did tout one of his accomplish-
ments while in office.
“In Paris, we came together around the
most ambitious agreement in history
about climate change, an agreement that
even with the temporary absence of
American leadership, can still give our
children a fighting chance,” he said.
Trump shocked many countries in June
by announcing he was pulling out of the
accord. He has also had a difficult
relationship with members of the press
and was recently condemned by Demo-
crats and Republicans for a tweet that
attacked a female MSNBC host.
Obama stressed the importance of step-
ping away from news sites where only
like-minded views are shared, and warned
about social media giving rise to resent-
ment of minorities and bad treatment of
people.
The former president was greeted by a
crowd of thousands, including leaders,
students, and businesspeople, in Jakarta,
where he opened the Fourth Congress of
Indonesian Diaspora. He is wildly popular
in Indonesia, where many view him as an
adopted son. A statue of the boy still
remembered as “Barry” stands outside his
old elementary school.
He reminisced about moving to Jakarta
in 1967 when he was just six years old,
shouting, “Indonesia bagian dari diri
saya!” or “Indonesia is part of me!”
Obama said he had been gorging on the
local food since arriving.
“If the rainy season came, the floods
were coming and we had to clean out the
floors in our house and then chase the
chickens because they had gone someplace
else,” he said to roaring laughter. “Today,
Jakarta is a thriving center of commerce
marked by highways and high-rises. So
much has changed, so much progress has
been made.”
Obama lived in the country with his
mother, an anthropologist, and his
Indonesian stepfather. The couple split up
after having his half-sister, and Obama
moved back to Hawai‘i when he was 10
years old to live with his grandparents.
But he said he has never forgotten the
years he spent in Indonesia.
“My time here made me cherish respect
for people’s differences,” he said, noting
how he and his family had just visited two
of the most treasured ancient temples —
Borobudur, a Buddhist complex, and the
Hindu compound of Prambanan — in the
world’s most populous Muslim country.
Obama’s speech came on the final leg of
his 10-day vacation in Indonesia. In
addition to visiting the temples in the city
of Yogyakarta on the island of Java, he and
his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Sasha
and Malia, went rafting and toured the
resort island of Bali. He also met
Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi”
Widodo at the grand Bogor Palace in West
Java, just outside Jakarta.
The Indonesian visit marked Obama’s
first trip to Asia since leaving office. He
urged the country to be a light of democ-
racy and to never stop embracing differ-
ences. Indonesia has faced a rise in Islamic
radicalism and anti-gay attacks, and was
recently condemned by rights groups for
jailing Jakarta’s former governor, an
ethnic Chinese Christian, for blasphemy.
“The spirit of this country has to be one
of tolerance. It’s enshrined in Indonesia’s
constitution, it’s symbolized by mosques
and temples and churches beside each
other,” Obama said. “That spirit is one of
the defining things about Indonesia. It is
one of the most important characteristics
to set as an example for other Muslim
countries around the world.”
Kim’s North Korea gains a little economically, a lot militarily
By Hyung-jin Kim
The Associated Press
S
EOUL, South Korea — Ruthless
dictator?
Economic
reformer?
Shrewd
master
of
nuclear
brinksmanship?
When Kim Jong Un took control of North
Korea in late 2011, speculation swirlled
around the young, Swiss-educated leader.
What would he do for an economically
backward authoritarian nation that had
been in a high-stakes nuclear standoff
with its neighbors and Washington for
years?
Almost six years later, there are still
unanswered questions, but some things
about Kim have come into focus. His rule
has actually seen the economy improve,
and when it comes to the nuclear drive, it’s
obvious that Kim, who rattled nerves July
4 by test-firing his country’s first
intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM),
has a more uncompromising stance than
his late father, Kim Jong Il, who
occasionally sat down for talks with
Washington meant to gain concessions.
Kim Jong Un seems uninterested in
negotiations until he perfects a nuclear
missile capable of striking anywhere in the
United States.
The stance has so far worked, and he’ll
likely achieve the badly needed nuclear
deterrence against the United States
fairly soon if he’s not stopped.
Here’s a look at Kim’s nuclear gamble
and what the future might hold.
What he’s doing
His father, who ruled North Korea from
1994 to 2011, also ordered a series of
weapons tests, but he let diplomats pursue
now-dormant international disarmament-
for-aid deals.
No such talks have happened under Kim
Jong Un. He has overseen three of the
North’s five atomic test explosions and
both of its successful satellite launches,
which are seen by the U.N. as a disguised
test of long-range missile technology.
And then there’s the July 4 ICBM
launch, the North’s most successful
missile test to date. Afterward, Kim said
he will never put his nuclear and missile
programs on the negotiating table as long
as U.S. hostility and nuclear threats
persist.
What accounts for Kim’s boldness?
It might just be his nature. Kim,
believed to be around 33, may have
strategically chosen to push the nuclear
program after determining that the
United States won’t attack because of
fears that a North Korean retaliation
would cause enormous casualties in South
Korea.
Kim may also have determined that
China, North Korea’s main ally and aid
benefactor, might agree to tougher
international sanctions against North
Korea but would stop short of doing
anything to bring down Kim’s government,
which could trigger a flood of refugees over
their shared border and potentially a
unified Korea with U.S.-allied Seoul in
charge.
North Korea’s small yet gradual
economic growth in recent years has also
allowed Kim to focus on furthering his
nuclear ambitions. His father, by com-
parison, resorted to outside handouts to
feed many of his 24 million people after a
devastating famine in the mid-1990s
killed tens of thousands.
What he wants
Kim’s propaganda machine argues that
the nuclear deterrence is a “treasured
sword” meant to cope with U.S.
aggression.
“Kim doesn’t want to resolve issues
through diplomacy. He’s just trying to
protect himself by reinforcing his country’s
military power,” said analyst Cheong
Seong-Chang at South Korea’s Sejong
Institute.
Since his inauguration, Kim has not met
any foreign leaders or traveled abroad.
The most high-profile foreigner he has
met:
former
National
Basketball
Association star Dennis Rodman, who
regaled him with a rendition of “Happy
Birthday” at an exhibition game during
one of several trips to Pyongyang.
Kim has repeatedly promised to achieve
Korean unification, and he likely thinks
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