Obama's Years of Living Dangerously

"A man who ceases to believe in God does not believe in nothing; he believes in anything."

G.K. Chesterton

It would seem that many of our nation's liberals are fully satisfied with CNN's "drive by" reporting on the Obama story. Insight reported... CNN flew in and debunked and that is it... story is over. Pack up the camera crew and jet off somewhere else.

In the wake of everything, many of us though are left dumbfounded because we just can't seem to put our finger on what exactly CNN supposedly debunked.

CNN's claim that Obama attended a multi-confessional, secular public school in Jakarta, Indonesia that has hardly changed in the last 35 years seems hard to believe.

Many are not interested in what CNN claims Obama's school is like now. We want to know what was it like back then in the late 60's and early 70's.

And so... on to what CNN's "drive by" reporting left out.

As reported, a young "Barry Soetoro" registered for school at the Franciscan Asisi Primary School on 1 January 1968. The late sixties and early seventies would be see an Indonesia in turmoil with the pro-communist Sukarno being overthown by the pro-muslim Suharto.

Less than a year before a young "Barry Soetoro" had registered for school, Indonesia would have witnessed one of the worst slaughters of the twentieth century, when over half a million PKI (Parti Komunis Indonesia) members and their supporters were slaughtered by General Suharto's principally Muslim military and their supporters. A vivid portrayal of the events leading up to Sukarno's overthrow can be seen in the Mel Gibson movie entitled "The Year of Living Dangerously"

In 1967 the nationalist and pro-communist Sukarno was overthrown by General Suharto. On 21 March 1968, Suharto would be formally elected as President.

Under Suharto, Sukarno's state ideology of Pancasila taught in all schools would under go an "indigenization" process in which all Marxist and Western elements of the ideology would be systematically eradicated and replaced with indigenous elements. Religious teachings and ethics related to Islam would become more pronounced in Pancasila as a unifying factor for the mostly Muslim country.

During this "indigenization" process and time of instability it is safe to assume that there would be a fair amount of backlash against any Western individuals living in Indonesia.

Witnesses reported here below that "there were claims that the child was from Papau" when asked about a young Barry Soetoro. It is hard to imagine what life might have been like for a young American mother and her child living in Indonesia at this time.

There have been no explanations as to why Barack Obama's family moved from their original residence to Dempo Street or why Obama's family removed him from the Franciscan Asisi School and enrolled him in Besuki Primary.

What is known is that Indonesia's education system was experiencing a major transformation with religion (Islam) now playing a much more pivotal role.

In 1976, Lambert Kelabora published a paper entitled "Religious Instruction Policy in Indonesia" which addresses many of the questions regarding what Barack Obama's Indonesian education was like in the late 1960's and early 70's.

An excerpt from the first page of this paper reads clearly indicates it's relevency:

"Religion permeates every section of life in Indonesia. It occupies an enormously important place in politics, economics, education, and the arts. For this reason, the study of religious education will have to include almost almost all aspects of Indonesian society. This article, however, is intended to study the development of religious instruction in the government schools - only a small section of the wider spectrum of religious education. The term religious instruction is used advisedly to refer to the religious lessons provided in secular education institutions under the Ministry of Education."

Another paper published in the late 70's entitled "Assumptions Underlying Religious Instruction in Indonesia" explains in great detail how Indonesia's education system was changing.

"However the changing political and security situation in the country since 1949 has made religion a compulsory subject for all, from pre-primary to tertiary level..."

Over the last week, I have received many emails, many supportive and many others downright hateful accusing me of being anything from a bigot, a racist and and even an islamophobe.

The truth is that I am not any of these things. Like many others, I simply wanted to know the truth.

---