Statue Face-Off

Displeased Indonesians have been venting via Facebook outraged that a statue of a young Obama, “who is not an Indonesian national hero”, has been installed in a Jakarta park. “The Facebook group named ‘Take Down the Barack Obama Statue in Taman Menteng Park’ had attracted more than 10,000 members by Tuesday since the 43-inch statue of 10-year-old Obama dressed in shorts and a T-shirt was unveiled in the downtown park on Thursday last week. Heru Nugroho, the group’s creator, said he would use the support on the popular social networking Web site to demand that Jakarta Gov. Fauzi Bowo remove the statue. ‘Everybody knows that Obama is a world leader, but he is not our national hero who deserves to be awarded a statue,’ Nugroho said. ‘This has hurt our national pride because there are many Indonesian figures who gave worthy service to this nation but no statue has been built for them,’ he added.”