Indonesians resigned to further delay in Obama’s visit

Reporting from Jakarta, Indonesia — 

Cancel the speeches, the honor guard and welcoming parties. Indonesia’s adopted son isn’t coming home just yet.

Across the sprawling archipelago Friday, people took the news stoically that President Obama had postponed his trip here next week to attend to a pressing political agenda back home, getting his healthcare initiative passed into law. The press continued its coverage that treated Obama more as rock star than political leader.

White House officials said Obama would delay until June the trip to Indonesia and Australia designed to cement ties in a region that has seen rising Chinese influence.

Obama was set to deliver his second major policy speech to the Muslim world, this time addressing a religiously moderate democracy of 230 million people that seeks closer bonds with the United States.

He had also planned to announce details of a so-called U.S.-Indonesia strategic partnership agreement, which experts say will focus on the economy, terrorism and climate change.

Obama had already put off his arrival by three days to shepherd healthcare through Congress. On Thursday came a longer postponement. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama had sent regrets to leaders in both Indonesia and Australia.

Many here said they were more than willing to wait for the world leader who has called himself the “first Pacific president.”

In an Internet posting Friday, one social critic said Indonesians took in stride the delay in welcoming Obama, who spent four years here as a boy after his mother married an Indonesian.

“We are dismayed at the postponement, but we are also proud that President Obama prioritizes the needs of his people, that everybody deserves affordable healthcare,” said Wimar Witoelar, who operates an independent online news and opinion outlet.

Others agree that it is the right decision for a leader trying to pass such important legislation.

“Diplomacy is not baseball, and this third strike does not mean that the president is out,” wrote analyst Michael J. Green in a commentary for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Not everyone here is anxiously awaiting Obama’s return.

Some point to a so-called Obama contradiction: Though many Indonesians personally root for him, others say that as the president of a superpower waging wars in two brother Muslim nations, he should be viewed with suspicion.

Radical Muslim clerics say Obama has broken promises made last year in Cairo in a major address to Muslims urging the renunciation of violence in the Islamic world.

The hard-line Muslim group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia had pledged nonstop protests during the planned three-day visit.

“Obama is a guest, and there are two kinds of guests: honorary guest and a guest with a luggage of problems. Obama is the latter type as he expands the killing fields and destroying lives,” it said in a statement.

Internet reports here on Friday carried numerous angles on the postponement. One story said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono preferred a June visit, when Obama would be less distracted by events at home.

Another emphasized that the trip was not canceled because of terrorism fears. The Indonesian government recently has launched several raids on Islamic extremists, killing several suspected top terrorists.

Police on the island of Bali, where 2,400 troops were to be deployed to secure Obama’s visit there, announced Friday that they would go ahead with plans to conduct a counter-terrorism drill.

Obama told an Indonesian TV station that it made sense to visit in June so he could take his time. He said he looked forward to eating some bakso, a meatball soup.

Meanwhile, Indonesians resigned themselves to new preparations in June.

“Diplomatic events are important but we can hold them at another time,” Witoelar said. “President Obama, come when you can, come as you are.”

john.glionna@latimes.com