The first time I lived in Southeast Asia, my wife and I spent a year in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was 1994-95 and Bill Clinton was a relatively new American president - in the first half of his first term. When the ASEAN conference came to Jakarta in 1994, I was amazed at the reaction to the Big Dog. People simply loved him. He was a star. He didn’t have to say anything, just stand there, smile, shake hands and slap backs in his inimitable fashion...the Indonesians were smitten. I asked a few local people about the previous president, George H.W. Bush.
"Bush is a bad man" was the simple reply.
I quickly realized it had little to do with actual politics. In 1994, Indonesia was thirty years in the grip of the military dictator, Suharto, who had risen to power on the slaughtered bodies of hundreds of thousands of "communists" and "leftists", and brooked no opposition from any corner. He and George Bush Sr. were ideological cousins, in other words. But the people in the street couldn’t be fooled.
"Bush is a bad man", was the consensus reply.
[This is the part of the diary that I recall, in passing, the eight year reign of George Bush Jr.]
I recently moved to Laos, my first time living in Southeast Asia since 1995. Soon after arriving, my wife and I were strolling through our neighborhood one day when an older, shabbily dressed, semi-toothed gentleman approached us and began a conversation in passable English. After a few pleasantries, he smiled widely and out of nowhere crowed,
"Balack Obama! Balack Obama!"
When I gave him the enthusiastic thumbs up, he continued.
"He’s a good man, good man...a clean young man".
I nodded. He paused and looked at me closely.
"You look like him!"
As a 54 year old mostly white guy, I was amused to say the least.
Well, we see this gentleman, Mr. Khouang, frequently sitting at his post outside a big house on the main road. He is always sitting quietly with his dog. Reading. Every time we see him he greets us with a cheery, "Sabaidee!" followed by some English chat. Today, after saying hello, he exclaimed excitedly,
"Balack Obama! Afghanistan!"
Well, I know there is growing controversy over the U.S. role in Afghanistan, and Obama's potential decisions, but...what good news? I ventured something positive.
"Yes, it is difficult there, but I trust Obama. He is a very smart man."
"Yes. Very smart man."
Dude was psyched about his boy Barack and something about Afghanistan, but I couldn’t figure out exactly what. After returning home, it dawned on me that over the weekend, I had picked up a cool-looking booklet from the U.S. Embassy desk at a local trade fair. It was the "Story of Barack Obama", all written in the Lao language. Of course! I grabbed it and hustled back to where Mr. Khouang was peacefully reading his newspaper. I laid it on him. To say he was excited about receiving this treasure is an understatement. The photo of baby Barack with his Mom especially set him off.
I guess it got me thinking about Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize (an award which didn’t hurt my feelings one bit) and how the United States’ standing in the world has taken such a beating under Republican (any Republican) rule. As a person who has lived abroad in many different countries, it is more than obvious to me that Republican presidents inevitably damage us in the eyes of the world, and it is inevitably up to Democratic presidents restore us.
I'm sure I don’t need to ask Mr. Khouang his opinion of George Bush Jr.