VIVAnews - The United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was repeatedly asked the same question during her visit to Indonesia on Feb. 18-19: when will President Barack Obama visit Indonesia?
The Indonesian society's enthusiasm in welcoming Obama has attracted other countries' attention. The Australian, an Australian news site, said that Obama is the most expected figure for Indonesian people since Obama has spent his childhood in Menteng Bawah, Jakarta.
According to the Presidential spokesperson, Dino Patti Djalal, the official invitation to Obama has been directly sent out by President Yudhoyono via a telephone call on Nov. 12 2008 during a G-20 meeting in the US. It was the first conversation with Obama since he was elected President.
Most likely, Obama will visit Indonesia in November or December 2009, coinciding with the APEC Forum in Singapore in November 2009. In addition, by then the election would have been completed.
"We are sure that Obama will be warmly greeted by the Indonesian people. He's the 'Anak Menteng' [Menteng Boy]," said Djalal as quoted in The Australian's web-page on Tuesday, Feb. 24.
In his meeting with Clinton on Thursday Feb. 19, President Yudhoyono asked Clinton to kindly remind Obama to visit Indonesia.
Yudhoyono believes that Obama is willing to come Indonesia, one of his childhood countries. "Of course, Obama's visit will be welcomed by all Indonesian people. We hope it will happen this year," said Djalal to the reporters at the State Palace.
When visiting the U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs and the officials in Washington DC on Thursday, Jan. 22, Obama talked with one of the officials, Charles Silvern in Bahasa Indonesia. Obama mentioned his old neighborhood, Menteng Dalam. Silver said he used to live in Obama's neighborhood to which Obama responded, “I wasn’t in Menteng; that was the rich section. I was in Menteng Dalam, which means below Menteng.”
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Translated by: Ariyantri E. Tarman
