
Help U.S. Media set the record straight on Barack Obama's Indonesian school
Perspektif Online
26 January 2007
Presidential candidate Barack Obama went to public and secular school at Cikini, but he was accused by Fox News and Insight magazine (subsidiary of the the Washington Times, not the Washington Post) of having gone to a 'madrassa' (meaning madrasah) teaching extreme beliefs. Very few madrasahs actually are hard-liners, but US media like to paint a distorted picture of Indonesia as a terrorist-tolerating country.
We can help Obama set the record straight by listing names of SDN 1 Menteng alumni and testimony to deny ridiculous attacks by conservative US media. Barack Obama spent four years in Indonesia. Debunking the attacks on Obama will also debunk character assasination of Indonesia as terrorist country. Please forward this message to The US Ambassador in Jakarta. He and the State Department should make a non-partisan statement of clarification.
Please have the World Bank staff in Jakarta tell friend-of-Indonesia Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank President to do something nice about Indonesia. We are currently fighting terrorists in Poso and we succeedeed in Bali.
Help our image please. Be fair to Obama although he is a Democrat. Republicans will gain by giving non-partisan support. We are neutral in the US Presidential elections. But we are not neutral in choosing between the truth and slander.
The contention that Obama was educated at a radical Muslim madrassa surfaced on the Web site of the conservative Insight magazine the day after Obama announced he was jumping into the 2008 presidential race. Conservative Internet blogs and the Fox News Channel picked up the story and spread the charges just as his candidacy was getting off the ground.
Obama on Wednesday called the reports "scurrilous," and his communications director e-mailed reporters a lengthy memo attempting to set the record straight. Obama's mother, divorced from Obama's father, married a man from Indonesia named Lolo Soetoro, and the family relocated to the country from 1967-71.
Obama went to a Catholic school then transferred to SDN Menteng 1 — the elite, secular elementary school at the center of the controversy. The school is public but is very competitive and has exceptionally high standards. It is located in Menteng, top elite neighborhood and one of the most affluent parts of Jakarta, The school attracts mostly middle- to upper-class students, including Suharto's grandchildren who are hardly Muslim extremists. Did ex-president Megawati also go to school there, or the one next door? You can tell us.
Better still, you can help us list known alumni of SDN 1 Cikini, including yourself if you are one. We will let CNN or AP quote the list.
are you in this picture?
AP further reports: Those tied to the school say they are proud to have had a student like Obama, and hope that, if he is elected president, his ties to Indonesia will broaden his world perspective and his views on religion. Sri Murtiningsih, who retired from Menteng 1 recently after 39 years of teaching, said she has vivid memories of the left-handed boy who followed a standard curriculum of math, writing, and language, together with twice-weekly religious affairs classes and sports.
Murtiningsih said neighbors ran to her house after seeing a television report about his intention to run for president.
"They were yelling, 'Your old student is going to take Bush's job!'" she said. "Tears filled my eyes."
Read more:
- Jan 23: CNN: CNN visits Indonesian school in question, sees no radicalism
- Jan 24: AP: Interview with people from Obama's school in Indonesia
- Jan 24: NY Times: CNN vs Fox over Obama's Indonesian school
- Jan 26: Media Matters: Recap of smear against Obama by "opponents"
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