When Obama Was Just "Dumpling Ears"

Jakarta Globe ^ | 4/25/2010 | Yanto Soegiarto

[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.”

[Velveeta]

Candor7, are you pinging for LucyT?

[mojitojoe]

he is now the most powerful person on earth
_________________
ROFLMAO! No, he just thinks he is. He works for us, he’s our peon.

[DJ MacWoW]

Load of BS ping!

[mojitojoe]

Did you read the article? Lolo was in military uniform. I doubt an adult would be in cub scouts.

[thouworm]

Barack Obama and his primary school classmates in this class photo from the 1970s. Some of President Barack Obama’s former classmates were invited to the home of US Ambassador Cameron Hume a day before Obama’s inauguration in 2009. (Photo courtesy Widiyanto)

11/03/2008 / INDONESIA/ USA
"Obama never studied in an Islamic madrassa"

Photo of Obama's class (he's circled in yellow) at the Besuki Menteng 01 School, Jakarta 1970.

Obama’s former classmates took this photo in front of their old primary school on 1 March 2008

Rully Dasaad was a classmate of Obama in 1970 in Jakarta:

"Barack Obama, "Barry" as we called him, was always a good pupil. Always in a good mood, always smiling. He made a big effort to adapt and make friends; being different was no problem. At that time, the scout captain named Barry leader of group A. I was in that group. It was him who gave the order to stand to attention or at ease. At school we all spoke in Indonesian, and he learnt how to speak it too. He knows our language. "He spent two years at the Catholic school and so two years with us. The rumours about him attending an « Islamic Madrassa » are nothing but lies. It's just because his step-father and father are Muslim.At that time there was no mini-mosque like now [there's a small mosque inside the school now].

This school was a normal public school. There were Chinese Buddhist pupils, Hindus from Bali, Christians and Muslims. Everyone was mixed up. It was not a school reserved for Muslims, not at all. Most children from well-off families came to study at the school. Suharto's young children also went there."

SOURCE

[mojitojoe]

Which one is him in the first photo? I thought he left there in 1970, but they are saying he was there until August of 1971.

[MissDairyGoodnessVT]

what? no barf alert for indonesian propaganda?

[thouworm]

Indonesia 1969: Rully Dasaad

After Barack's parents split up, he moved with his mother and Indonesian stepfather to Jakarta, aged seven, where he befriended classmate Dasaad - now a commercial photographer - at Basuki Primary School.

Quotes by Rully Dasaad

"When the teacher introduced 'Barry Soetoro' [Obama went by his stepfather's name at the time] to the class, he was very exotic. He was the only non-Indonesian; he was taller than all of us and chubby. He was accompanied by his white mum and his Indonesian stepfather, who was wearing a military outfit, and I remember thinking, that's strange, he looks half black, half white - maybe this is what a boy from Hawaii looks like."
~~~~~~~~

"He and his mum had been living in Indonesia since 1967. She worked for USAID, helping Indonesian women in the countryside to live in a more Western fashion. For the first two months, Barry was still adjusting. We had a singing class once a week and he wouldn't sing, probably because he was shy and worried that he might sing a word wrong. But after three months, he spoke Indonesian. He became one of us."
~~~~~~~~

"At the time, my father and President Sukarno were the only people in the country with Cadillacs, and both were presents from my grandpa, who was the richest man in Indonesia."
~~~~~~~~

"We came back from the summer vacation for fifth grade and Barry wasn't there. The teacher said he'd gone back to Hawaii. Our small gang was split up."

SOURCE

[DJ MacWoW]

I think His Smirkness is standing behind the woman. In the center.

[thouworm]

Note on Wynton Marsalis: Flamenco, Food, Fado and Friends FACEBOOK page

Rully Dasaad

Many Thanks to you Wynton to all yours sweet attention and kind support to my daughter Rose Dasaad,Susanna Tadjab and Remon..My great respect to you as a Jazz Fan whos listening to you since you were still in Art Blakey's Jazz Messenger Band...I hope someday you will appear in Java Jazz in jakarta - Indonesia someday..May God Bless you always....Take care Rully Dasaad
July 15, 2009 at 7:51pm

SOURCE

[skimbell]

Is that a picture of Barry's mother?

I didn't recognize her with clothes on.

[Las Vegas Ron]

When US President Barack Obama officially visits Indonesia in June, classmates from his elementary school days are looking forward to seeing him again.

Wonder where all of his classmates are from schools he "attended" here in the U.S.?

[thouworm]

When a whispering campaign began in Washington that Obama had attended a radical Islamic school, it galvanised his former classmates from the nearby Besuki Primary School. Rully Dasaad, a photographer, formed an Obama fan club and almost all his 24 classmates joined, dismissing suggestions Obama was educated as a Muslim.

"The claims it was a madrassa [Islamic school] were unfair," he said. "In our time we had Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists all mixed in one class. Every morning we would recite the state ideology of Pancasila [promoting unity in diversity]."

Coming from one of Indonesia's wealthiest families and with an American aunt, Dasaad spoke good English and took "chubby Barry" under his wing. They joined the Scouts together and every lunchtime would play tak gebok, an Indonesian version of dodgeball.

He remembers buying Obama a notebook and pencils for his 10th birthday, as he loved to draw. "He liked to draw superheroes; it was always Batman or Superman."

SOURCE

[DJ MacWoW]

It’s easier to support fairytales from Indonesia. If an American lied, SOMEONE would come forward and tell on them.

[gleeaikin]

I thought you were talking about the son. He wore a cub scout hat.

[Las Vegas Ron]

Yeah, you know it's funny, I never noticed before but in that pic at post 10, Barry could pass for Lalo's kid.

I'm not suggesting anything but it just kind of struck me, must be my mood today.

[mojitojoe]

Odd, isn’t it?

[Las Vegas Ron]

Odd, isn’t it?

It is, funny thing is it never caught my attention before.

[DJ MacWoW]

Yeah. In that pic he does look like he could be Lolo’s.

[thouworm]

lol; contentious school rivalry to claim Obama and to reaffirm that Obama is not Muslim [that seems like the real campaign]
~~~~~~~~~

April 9, 2010
Indonesia Catholic School Promotes Ties to Obama Washington Post: Catholic Elementary School Seeks Recognition For Its Role in Obama's Life

"What Madewa and other old friends want to remind Obama about won't bring any joy to those in the United States who contend that the president is a closet Muslim. The truth, they say, is this: While Obama went to Besuki, a mostly Muslim school, for less than a year, he spent most of his four years in Indonesia studying at Santo Fransiskus Asisi, a Roman Catholic school run at the time by a stern Dutch priest. Classes began and ended each day with Christian prayers."

"Sometime in the third grade, Obama's mother moved up-market to Menteng. Obama switched schools to Besuki. He returned to the United States less than a year later. Exactly how many months he spent at Besuki is not known; the school's registration records were destroyed years ago by flooding".

SOURCE