Commentary

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

Is he Barack or Barry? Obama or Soetoro? On the campaign trail, John McCain once referred to him as "that one". As of Wednesday, he is "the one".

Obamania swept the world as giddily as an American Idol contest. He attained iconic status for his composed veneer, compelling delivery and eloquence becoming of a Harvard graduate.

His campaign team ingeniously juxtaposed a platform of "hope" over the Republican message of "fear".

After eight years of fearmongering, Americans ultimately voted for hope.

All is good and well tonight in America. Camelot is reborn, shades of the Kennedy and early Clinton years rekindled.

Indonesians were just as enamored as the rest of the world. An upsurge fueled by sentimentality over rationality.

A deluge of local features highlighted Obama's "brief" presence in Central Jakarta as distant cousins, old schoolmates and grade-school teachers used up their 15 minutes of fame to propagate Obamania through the faded childhood memory of America's 44th president-elect.

While Indonesians can't get enough of tales of the young Barry running around eating bakso in Menteng, Obama since the campaign began in January has been fleeting of his time here.

One brief remark of Indonesia has ever been recorded, and even his foreign policy briefs are elusive of reference to Indonesia or even Southeast Asia.

Barry may just have forgotten about his time in the world's largest archipelago.

Or perhaps, to placate a phobic electorate, chose to gloss over his experience among the world's largest Muslim population.

Recall how two Muslim women in headscarves were removed from standing in the televised background during an Obama rally by overzealous campaign workers.

Elections are all about appeasing domestic constituents. To the discerning foreign observer the conclusion, for now, is that he is an American leader, not a global one.

Obama's lament during the Democratic Party Convention that American factories were being shipped abroad is consistent with his party's ideology and his own platform that smells strangely of protectionism.

He dropped strong hints questioning the value of free trade with Asian partners, contending that limited access to these markets did not compensate for American job losses.

He has threatened to slash billions of dollars in tax breaks to U.S. companies who move their operations overseas, while pledging to ensure public contracts are awarded to companies committed to American workers.

In fact it was Obama who as Senator helped introduce the Patriot Employer Act last year, which provides tax credits to companies that maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in America relative to those outside the U.S.

Obama has specifically made clear his dislike of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement as they presently stand.

On foreign policy, the Obama camp has lauded a new era of multilateral cooperation distinct from that of the Bush administration.

Nevertheless strategic fundamentals will not change.

On the Palestine-Israel issue, a subject both Indonesians and Americans are passionate about, Obama will not deviate from the traditional U.S. stance.

Though supporting a two-state solution, he maintains that America's first and incontrovertible commitment in the Middle East is to Israeli security.

He has called for beefed-up military aid packages to Israel, including a joint missile defense system for the Jewish state.

A key pledge Obama has made has been the military's withdrawal from Iraq.

It will be a move welcomed around the world, since the U.S. should not have invaded in the first place.

But the narrative of withdrawal thus far has been self-servingly American rather than for the good of Iraqis.

Obama's logic seems simply that America lost, and now it is better to run away than pay the long-term consequences of involvement in Iraq.

Forcing the Iraqi government to take control before they are ready, muscling Iraqis to pay for the reconstruction, and abandoning security to a nascent Iraqi force is irresponsible.

Whether at the local china shop or in Iraq, the pottery-barn rule applies equally: You break it, you fix and pay for it!

For now, Obama offers much hope but not yet enough change.