Election Time

Every four years, the beginning of November will leave a number of people twinkling with anticipation and just as many soured with disappointment. Many hoped their choices this past week would help to propel our nation in a new direction, and others felt that remaining in cruise-control would ensure better gas milage. Both sides had their arguments; both felt strongly; it was a left vs. right battle. One could maintain that there was, in fact, very little difference between last Tuesday's election and any other recent election (it's clear that an unvoiced but very loud half of our country felt this way). However, despite the lingering political apathy and the disheartened right-wingers, I'm positive the modest minority of our citizens who voted for Barack Obama were onto something.

My November 4th began just like any other day of the week in North Sumatra. I woke up at 6:00 a.m., ate a rice-based breakfast, rode my motorcycle down the palm tree-lined street that leads to my school, and began to teach my 10th graders a lesson on conditional clauses. The only way this morning was different for me was because my friend, Jonthon, another Fulbrighter, had come to visit. There has been a decent amount of buzz going around the school about the US presidential elections and specifically about Obama, but it's been no more intense here than it has anywhere else in Indonesia for the past year. Most have been excitedly watching from a distance, as Obama emerged victorious primary after primary. Jonthon helped to add a new dynamic to my classes and made some fresh new jokes, but everything proceeded very much as normal.

It wasn't until after English Club, at about 5:00 p.m., that things started to heat up. That was, after all, 5:00 a.m. in the U.S. I double-checked with my headmaster to make certain that my plans to miss school the next day were still no problem, and Jon and I went back to my house to begin compiling all of our politically oriented periodicals from the past two months. I studied my map of Medan, and we both set off on my mo-ped. Equipped with a bulging, wobbly, mountain-climbers backpack full of reading material and electronics, we began our trek to the only place I could think of where we could watch CNN International and simultaneously get updates from other sources with free, high-speed, wireless internet – Medan's branch of the international chain of hotels, Novotel.

Lucky for us, it was grill night at the Novotel restaurant. For $5 we had free rain over the buffet, which contained everything from shrimp and squid to steak and pork chops. All we had to do was bring the raw meat to the man with the fire, and he eagerly used whatever spices and sauces we figured might taste good. I was in heaven. Unfortunately, however, Jonthon happens to be a vegetarian. Not to fear though. As we happened to have noticed some bell peppers on display at the salad bar, I urged Jon to insist that they grill him up some veggies. They weren't on the menu, and technically, they weren't even part of the salad bar, but if there's one thing I've found about this country, it's that when it comes to food, people will bend over backwards every time to please you. I would feel guilty to take advantage of something like this on a daily basis, but given the circumstances, and the fact that Jon had come all the way from his small village in West Sulawesi, I wanted to make sure he could fully enjoy some of the splendor that city life offers.

A night of downloading all three presidential debates on Youtube was followed by a morning of watching them on my laptop back in the dinning room. By that time, the polls had begun to close in the US, and results were starting to pour in. Jonthon and I decided that we needed to take a break for breakfast and come back a couple hours later, so we could more greatly appreciate the progress. While enjoying a range of rare dairy products offered at this fine international establishment, we were being constantly accompanied by a rotating group of Novotel staff members. They talked excitedly about the election, as if it were their own, and they attentively watched our internet recordings of the debates, as if they had any idea about what the English-speaking candidates were saying.

As a U.S. citizen working overseas, some of the most powerful footage for me after Obama's victory were the images of entire crowds in other nations celebrating the success our new president elect. Hotel Novotel Medan was no exception. High fives were getting passed around as fast as it took people to make eye-contact with one another, and wait staff, as well as managers, were neglecting the bulk of their duties. How does it make sense that these people, who might seem so far removed from the realm of international politics, could get excited over a president who lives on the complete opposite side of the globe? Do they even know what they're happy about? I've found that most of them do, but it's not so obvious.

As Americans it's easy to get caught up in our own lives, enter and leave work every day, study for our exams, take care of our families, and never realize the impact that our choices, ideals, and beliefs have on the lives of other people (and for that matter, our own). We are constantly shaping the face of democracy without even knowing it. We're proud of our American Dream, but it's clear that few of us understand exactly what that is. For us, our country is our home; it is the place where we grew up and the place where we will likely settle down. We have been brought up with a culturally unique, constant, and ingrained encouragement to strive against all odds and to “be whatever you want to be.” We have the riches and resources to make these dreams a reality, and because of that, there's hardly any reason to give these privileges a thought in our day-to-day lives. This is what we have, and this is what we live; it's comfortable, and it doesn't leave a whole lot to be desired. For most U.S. citizens, the American Dream has unfortunately become an American routine. People in other nations see our success, but they don't fully understand how we've come to achieve it, nor how we sustain it. That, however, doesn't keep them from being impressed. Indonesians want to like America, albeit they have many reasons not to, but they are a struggling new democracy; they want and need an ideological example.

Those whom I've talked to in Indonesia generally don't have any idea about what's going on with foreign policy; their lives demand that they know even less than the average politically naïve westerner. They generally don't have a clue about the global financial crisis, how it was caused, or even about it's implications. They know that there's a problem, and they know it started in the West, but they don't care one way or the other about how McCain or Obama plan to tackle the problem. They do, however, see how poorly things have been handled in the Middle East for the last many years; they know about Guantanamo Bay, and recently they've see white, elderly, political everyman, John McCain juxtaposed with a dark-skinned guy, who's father came from Africa, and who has drastically different opinions about how the U.S. should conduct itself abroad. Many of them see Obama as a symbol for how democracy can work at it's best, and how even though he's a member of a minority, the American people came together, over their differences, and chose the only real option for the presidency.

A constant struggle with corruption, poverty, a rise in religious fundamentalism, unemployment, failed educational reforms, and poor healthcare, has led many Indonesians to become understandably skeptical as to whether or not democracy is any better than Suharto's autocratic and many times cruel regime, which ended only ten years ago. Many remember a sense of security under Suharto that isn't as present today, even though the over-all state of their country has undeniably improved. Indonesians are longing for a boost in patriotic spirit and self belief that could help them realize their own potential as the 4th most populated country on earth. Personally, my spirits have been boosted to have a pragmatic leader who's not afraid to listen to his opponents, but the rest of the world (at least my friends in Indonesia) is excited to see that the American Dream is not a myth and that, while it may take many years, they have every opportunity to continue fighting for the same standards within their own nations.