Obama’s Return

Barack Obama is returning to Asia, where he lived as a child and where he experienced his early life. Many Asian countries have since changed from one world to another, an amazing departure from backwardness, famine and poverty to progress and self-sufficiency. From the age of six until 10, Obama lived in Jakarta with his Indonesian step-father, Lolo Soetoro. Lolo married Obama’s mother after her divorce from his Kenyan father, Hussein Obama II, whom she met in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii. Obama’s house was filled with African and Asian names, which he would always repeat jokingly, and when he looked out at his world, he found himself between a father with a very dark complexion and a mother with a very fair one.

The Jakarta that Obama knew had just emerged from political massacres that had killed half a million people. India at that time was still relying on foreign aid and assistance. China was immersed in the Cultural Revolution which killed eight million people, whilst the lives of Mao and his wife Madame Mao were cheered and their names inserted into the national anthem sung in schools and military barracks. South Korea was a country under the mantle of poverty, wrestling with its agriculture and seasons of drought. Malaysia and Singapore had not yet entered the world of industry and development. The only country that resisted all change and progress was North Korea, satisfied with simply moving from the era of Kim Il Sung, the respected leader of 40 million Koreans, to respected leader Kim Jong-il. It is now preparing for a respected leader from amongst his sons, whose name remains a pleasant surprise for the world and for 40 million Koreans who don’t know who they will respect until the time comes.

Since Obama’s childhood, Asia has since transformed itself, becoming a continent of hope for the future. The “big leap” that China has achieved in the last forty years has exceeded the achievements of the U.S., Germany and Japan. India, on its own two feet, has advanced and progressed in a manner no one expected. Malaysia was transformed at the hands of Mahathir bin Mohamad, and Singapore at the hands of Lee Kuan Yew, two models of development that are the envy of Europe. South Korea today looks like Japan in the days of its first industrial renaissance. As for Indonesia, Obama’s country by adoption, it is moving “toward Asia” economically. It has enjoyed political stability since the end of the era of Suharto, who established 500 “charities” through which he embezzled money for his wife and children.

Unfortunately, this picture does not apply to two other corners of Asia: Afghanistan, which was mired in war with the Soviets and is now mired in war with the Americans, and Pakistan, which appears never to tire of its role as an agent of wars both at home and abroad.