Posted on 04/25/2010 10:07:57 AM PDT by Velveeta
When Obama Was Just ‘Dumpling Ears’
When US President Barack Obama officially visits Indonesia in June, classmates from his elementary school days are looking forward to seeing him again.
They may have known him for less than two years at school in the early ’70s, but Barry Soetoro, as Obama was then known, has become a source of inspiration and pride for many of his former classmates, said Rully Dasaad, one of those who befriended little Barry at Sekolah Dasar Negeri Besuki in Menteng.
“Barry affected our lives in a way,” Rully said. “He helped shape our personalities. I don’t know how to express it, but we are very proud to have been his classmates. Imagine, as US president, he is now the most powerful person on earth.”
Rully said this sentiment was shared by Widiyanto, Tita Tambunan, Donny Nyoman Moena, Deborah, Dewi Asmara, Ira Lesmana, Haryanni Barkah, Atik Isyanto and Yogi Dharma, along with many more of the “elite kids” from the school.
According to Rully, the school was where wealthy top government officials and bankers sent their children.
“Strangely, all the way from third and fourth grade with Barry to high school and up until now, we still meet and talk about nostalgic moments with him. We are all now in our late 40s, but we take time to gather, sometimes as many as 20 of us, to talk about practically anything as close friends,” said Rully, who works as a commercial photographer and technical surveillance instructor for elite security forces.
Widiyanto, who was Obama’s seatmate in third grade — back when students had to share a seat and desk built for two — said he was surprised when the US ambassador to Indonesia, Cameron Hume, invited him and Rully to his Surapati residence a day before Obama’s inauguration in January 2009 for a traditional slamatan, a ceremony for special occasions.
“Rully was in Bali at the time so he couldn’t come to the residence, but a friend represented him,” Widiyanto said. “In return, we, as Obama’s former classmates, invited the ambassador to SDN Besuki. Look at this photo. These are Obama’s classmates.”
Both Rully and Widiyanto recall that it was the more active and sporty kids at SDN Besuki who mostly played with Obama, though he was easygoing and friendly with everyone.
“From the first time that Barry was introduced, we wondered who he was — a chubby and taller-than-average kid with curly hair,” Rully said. “He was escorted by his father, who was in military uniform. Barry’s stepfather studied topography in Hawaii. Barry seemed like a very interesting kid and was all smiles.”
Widiyanto, who now runs his own express courier service company, said that Obama also joined the siaga , the Indonesian version of the US Cub Scouts. “Not very many people know this. Look at this photo, there’s Barry and me. President Obama has this photo too,” Widiyanto said, showing a never-before published photo of Obama as a boy wearing the distinctive siaga cap.
Asked whether they were still in touch with the president, both men said that since Obama assumed office, his executive secretary handled his correspondence. “The last exchange was in December last year with Deborah, who is now a manager at Unilever Indonesia,” Rully said.
Widiyanto said that even back then, Obama was already extremely smart. He remembers that Obama was left-handed and good at drawing. “I remember he sketched the characters in the Marvel and DC comics that Rully brought to school. Rully’s grandfather was one of Indonesia’s richest men at the time so he had access to imported comics,” Widiyanto said.
Rully remembers that Obama was shy when he first met him. “I befriended Barry. He moved from a Catholic school to SDN Besuki. [The school] was multiethnic. Islam was taught and prayers were held, attended by students of various religions.”
Rully, who said that Obama was affectionate toward his friends, continued to reminisce about the good old days.
“I remember that he was very straightforward. He didn’t like it if anyone cheated, whether playing marbles or petak gebok [Indonesian-style baseball].
“Barry was usually of a happy disposition, although sometimes children teased him and called him kuping pangsit [having ears shaped like fried dumplings]. He just laughed. I still remember he had an oval aluminum lunch box with him at school every day. Sometimes, he was brought to school on the back of a motorcycle if his mother had not yet gone off to work at the Indonesia-America Friendship Association [LIA].”
“Barry was very humble and sometimes just did what we asked him to do, such as eating Betawi glutinous rice or teasing the girls. We missed Barry when he had to leave in August 1971. Ask Ibu Karim [one of Obama’s teachers] or Pak Effendy [the class teacher] for their comments. They are witnesses who are still alive today.”
Rully said that after school, he and Obama often went to Taman Kodok, not far from SDN Besuki. “Barry never played at the park where a statue of him as a child was erected because at the time, what is now the park was a football stadium. I don’t know where people got the idea from. Oh well, you know, sometimes people make false claims to be in the [spotlight].”
Rully said he remained optimistic Obama would take time out to meet with his former classmates when he came to visit. “I hope his visit will not be all about official duties, but that he’ll be able to meet with us as well. Most of all, I hope he will come to Indonesia with his family,” Rully said.
He added that he expected President Obama’s speech in Indonesia to touch on the topic of unity between people of different faiths and beliefs. “He said in August last year that he would speak ‘at the right moment, at the right time and at the right place.’ I hope it will be in Indonesia.”
From the OP:
“Barry was usually of a happy disposition, although sometimes children teased him and called him kuping pangsit [having ears shaped like fried dumplings]. He just laughed.”
Forty years later, he about cried when Maureen Dowd did that.
An old school registry at Asisi records how, under the name "Barry Soetoro," he entered first grade at the start of the school year on Jan. 1, 1968. He was registered as a Muslim, based on his stepfather's faith. ... While at Besuki, Obama received instruction in Islam. But, recalled Rully Dasaad, a former classmate, Obama horsed around in class and, during readings of the Koran, got "laughed at because of his funny pronunciation."
Update by Daniel Pipes:
Barack Obama's Muslim Childhood
FrontPageMagazine.com
April 29, 2008
DanielPipes.org
Also, from Daniel Pipes article:
The Catholic school: Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press reports that "documents showed he enrolled as a Muslim" while at a Catholic school during first through third grades. Kim Barker of the Chicago Tribune confirms that Obama was "listed as a Muslim on the registration form for the Catholic school."
A blogger who goes by "An American Expat in Southeast Asia" found that "Barack Hussein Obama was registered under the name 'Barry Soetoro' serial number 203 and entered the Franciscan Asisi Primary School on 1 January 1968 and sat in class 1B. … Barry's religion was listed as Islam."
Haroon Siddiqui of the Toronto Star visited Besuki, the Jakarta public school Obama attended, and found that "Three of his teachers have said he was enrolled as a Muslim." Although Siddiqui cautions that "With the school records missing, eaten by bugs, one has to rely on people's shifting memories," he cites only one retired teacher, Tine Hahiyari, retracting her earlier certainty about Obama's being registered as a Muslim.
~~~~~~
BUGS? or FLOOD?
Ah, LOL, I had forgotten about that.
I think from now on, I will refer to Barry as:
Kuping-Pangsit-in-Chief.
The dates just don’t add up to what Kuping Pangsit has reported in the past.
“Hail to the Kuping-Pangsit-in-Chief.”
Works for me too!
The BUGS ate his papers?
That’s a new one.
That’s settled then. ;-)
Kuping Pangsit....lol
that’s why I posted all of this...and also to highlight Obot Rully Dasaad. I need to review all the info.
obumpa
Oh really! Hmmm. This would have been about '67? The country was Not Nice Place at that time. The government and military were not exactly Gentle with the populace.
Obama also joined the siaga , the Indonesian version of the US Cub Scouts.
It seems to be more like the US cub scouts than something out of Soviet Russia or Red China.
The Indonesian Scout Oath (Tri satya)
On My Honour, I promise to
* Fulfill my obligation to God, to the Republic of Indonesia, and to obey Pancasila
* Help other people and get involved in build the community
* Obey the Scout Law.
(The pancasila are the Buddist Five Precepts)
Scout Law (Dasa Dharma)
* Believe in God the Almighty
* Preserve nature and love each other
* Be an affable and knightly patriot
* Be obedient and collegial
* Help others with compliance and resilience
* Be diligent, skilled and cheerful
* Be provident and simple
* Exercise discipline, be brave and faithful
* Be accountable and trustworthy
* Have purity in mind, word and act
Obviously a lot of it did not take. Of course all that is now, not in the late '60s/early '70s.
This is where 0bama went to Koran classes. No he was not in a madrassa but he was at Koran classes where you robotically memorize and spit back out (recite) that non-holy book. All done in Arabic all over the world. Other languages are slave languages
Must have been a Buddhist scout troop. No Muslim agrees to this stuff and Indonesia is a Muslim nation. The most populous one on earth
I can. In fact I'm myspace friends with more than one of them, even though I'm over 600 miles from "home". However I did not know them for just a couple of years, I went to junior high with many of them, and high school with all of them that hadn't moved out of the high school district, by that time, which was by far most of them. We have had reunions, and now have a class website. So yea, I'm at least somewhat aware of where they are and what they are doing, these 50+ years since I first met them.
But new info does keep coming to my attention. Such as when one of them passed away less than two years ago. My mom told me about that, but I then contacted his family and expressed my condolences, and reminiscences.
Be nice if he came clean, resigned and stayed there.
Well, we can dream can't we. :)
Wonder what they called the kid to his left (our right). His ears are more Dumbo than dumpling.
Bugs ate 'em and the flood washed away the droppings.
Actually that was from a site about Indonesian Scouting in general. There's really nothing there that would trouble a Muslim, if properly interpreted. God== Allah, the Buddhist precepts are nothing special, common to many religions and philosophies.
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