A “deeply moved” Barack Obama, dodging volcanic ash, made a whirlwind return to his boyhood home of Indonesia yesterday, saying he would never have believed he would be back as US President.
Mr Obama marvelled at the transformation of the sleepy city of Jakarta he once knew into a bustling metropolis and noted the country’s parallel evolution from authoritarianism to democracy and a burgeoning alliance with Washington.
“It’s wonderful to be here although I have to tell you that when you visit a place that you spent time in as a child, as the President it’s a little disorientating,” he told reporters.
“The landscape has changed completely, when I first came here it was in 1967 and people were on becaks... a bicycle rickshaw thing.”
President Obama raced into Indonesia ahead of a cloud of volcanic ash spewing from Mount Merapi in central Java which has played havoc with commercial aviation traffic in recent days.
But he was forced to cut back his twice-postponed homecoming and will leave nearly two hours ahead of schedule today, amid concerns that Air Force One would otherwise be grounded by the plume of ash.
Mount Merapi continued to belch debris and clouds some 430 kilometres to the east, yesterday. So far 151 people have died since it began its latest cycle of eruptions on October 26, and more than 300,000 have fled their homes.
Indonesia was the second stop on Mr Obama’s Asia tour, after India, and he will travel on to South Korea for the G20 summit today and end his trip in Yokohama, Japan for the Apec summit.
Mr Obama will still, however, visit Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque, Southeast Asia’s largest, and give a major speech on US-Indonesian relations, partly targeted at Muslims, in a follow-up to his speech to believers from Cairo in 2009.
In Jakarta he admitted the task he set in that speech of forging a “new beginning” with Islam remained incomplete and there was “a lot more work to do”.
“We don’t expect that we are going to completely eliminate some of the misunderstandings and mistrust that have developed over a long period of time, but we do think that we’re on the right path,” he told reporters at a joint press conference with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Mr Obama also criticised Israel’s decision to build 1,300 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, warning it risked wrecking an already frail peace process with the Palestinians.
“This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations,” he said.
“I’m concerned that we’re not seeing each side make the extra effort to get a breakthrough that could finally create a framework for a secure Israel living side-by-side in peace with a sovereign Palestine.”
Mr Yudhoyono said the two had sealed a “comprehensive partnership” agreement designed to boost ties across economic and other fields, including “security and democratisation”.
Mr Obama said he was “deeply moved” after Indonesia awarded a posthumous medal to honour his late mother Stanley Ann Dunham, who spent years in Indonesia studying microfinance and seeking to empower women.
“I am proud and humbled to accept this award on behalf of my mother.
“The fact you would chose to recognise my mother in this way speaks to the bonds she forged over many years with the people of this magnificent country,” he said.
Mr Obama had no time for tourism, but said earlier he hoped to bring his daughters Malia and Sasha to see some of his old haunts when he is back in Jakarta next year for the East Asia summit.