Barack Obama -- The Statue

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Indonesia Rejects Obama

TPM is reporting that Indonesian officials are considering a petition that calls for a bronze statue in Jakarta of a young Barack Obama to be torn down.

Last month, a bronze statue of Obama was unveiled in Jakarta's Menteng Park. It depicts the Obama as a young boy, and commemorates the time he spent in Indonesia as a child.

Now, 55,000 people have joined a Facebook group that calls for the statue to be taken down, citing Obama's failure to "make a significant contribution to the Indonesian nation."

The group also says that "for the dignity of a sovereign nation, Barack Obama's monument in Menteng Park must be removed immediately."

According to parks agency official Dwi Bintarto, Indonesian officials have been "discussing for the past two weeks what to do with the statue... whether to take it down, move it elsewhere or retain it. We're finding the best solution."

"Little Barry" Heads Back To School

Hasyim Widhiarto, reporting from Jakarta, says the Central Jakarta administration will move the controversial "Little Barry" statue from its current location at Taman Menteng in Central Jakarta to state elementary school SDN 01 Menteng next week, an official says.

"We are currently discussing with officials from the school and its alumni association," city spokesman Cucu Ahmad Kurnia told reporters Friday. "We hope the move will happen next week."

Barack Obama attended the elementary school for almost two years when he spent part of his childhood in Jakarta.

Erected by the Jakarta-based Friends of Obama Foundation in December last year, the statue, which resembles Obama as a boy, recently sparked wide public criticism for insulting the nation's pride.

Just a few days after the Central Jakarta municipality unveiled the statue at Menteng Park, experts and a group of Facebook users demanded it be dismantled.

On Wednesday, the Central Jakarta District Court held a hearing to try a class action lawsuit by five plaintiffs representing 50,000 members of the "Take down the Barack Obama statue from Menteng Park" group on Facebook.

The five plaintiffs -- Heru Nugroho, Protus Tanuhandaru, Daniel Rudi Haryanto, Andes Soesman and FX Agung Bimo Sutedjo -- filed the suit against Jakarta governor, Central Jakarta mayor and the Jakarta Parks and Cemeteries Agency, saying the statue didn't deserve a place at the park and should be immediately removed.

Although appreciating the administration's plan to remove the statue, Heru said the group would go ahead with its lawsuit.

"We will only withdraw the lawsuit if the city administration publicly apologizes for its one-sided decision to permit the statue," he told The Jakarta Post.

Hawaiian-born Obama moved to Indonesia at the age of six to live with his mother, Ann Dunham, and Indonesian stepfather Lolo Soetoro.

Obama attended third grade at the school in 1968. He returned to Hawaii at the age of 10 to live with his maternal grandparents.

Jakarta Obama Statue Taken Down

The Jakarta Globe is reporting that a statue depicting Barack Obama as a boy was Sunday removed from a park in Indonesia’s capital, officials said.

The two-meter bronze was removed from Menteng Park and taken to nearby Menteng One primary school, which Obama attended in the late 1960s, vice-principal Akhmad Solikhin told AFP.

"Workers hired by the school, local government and alumni spent an hour removing the statue with electric equipment," he added.

"We’ll need another two to three days to place the statue at the compound near the school gate so the public can see it when they pass by," Solikhin added.

The decision to move the statue comes after more than 57,000 people joined a page on social networking website, "Facebook," calling for the statue to be removed and replaced by a memorial to an Indonesian identity.

"There were people who opposed it. For us, we’d like the statue to be in the school to inspire the children to have big dreams like Obama," Solikhin said.

The statue of "Little Barry" -- as Obama was known to his Indonesian school friends -- was designed by Indonesian artists and depicts the boy Obama dressed in shorts and a T-shirt with a butterfly perched on his hand.

Obama, who was born in Hawaii, lived for four years as a child in Jakarta from 1967 after his divorced mother married an Indonesian.

The White House announced in early February that Obama and his family will visit Indonesia in March.

The trip has been eagerly awaited in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country since Obama’s inauguration, which has been welcomed in Indonesia as the start of a new era in US diplomacy.