Chat with the First Sister

Maya Soetoro-Ng speaks candidly to Rozanna Latiff about her mother, the late Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, her half-brother

DR MAYA Soetoro-Ng sees her half-brother, United States president Barack Obama, at least once a year, when the Obama clan comes together for their traditional Christmas and New Year’s vacation in Hawaii.

At other times, Soetoro-Ng says, she and her powerful brother like nothing more than catching up over a game of online Scrabble.

“He’s responsive to e-mail and phone calls but we mostly keep in touch by playing Scrabble on the iPad,” she said at an interview in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Obama and Soetoro-Ng, 42, an education specialist with the East West Centre (EWC) in Honolulu, remain close, although they had different fathers and lived apart for many years.

Both spent their early years in Indonesia and Hawaii before their mother, Ann Dunham, decided to move to Jakarta with Soetoro-Ng in 1972, while Obama stayed in Honolulu with his grandparents.

Dunham, says Soetoro-Ng, left an indelible impact on her and Obama, and on the work they do.

“Mother was our first teacher. (Barack has often said) that many of the lessons he values, of careful listening and respectful engagement, came from her,” she says.

 Like her mother, Soetoro-Ng also worked with the EWC as an anthropologist. However, Soetoro-Ng says, Dunham was not content living the academic’s life and strove to make a real impact on others, particularly upon her return to Indonesia.

There, Dunham focused deeply on women’s work in cottage industries, spending time with villagers and getting to know their needs. Her research helped build the largest micro-finance programme in the world, as Indonesia sought ways to address rural poverty.

“She wanted to make sure she wasn't simply an outsider, coming into Indonesia and trying to tell people what to do.”

“She recognised that she also had much to learn — there was a measure of humility there,” Soetoro-Ng says.

This two-way approach has also helped Soetoro-Ng’s work as an educator, whose expertise include conflict resolution and peace education.

“My mother strongly emphasised that everyone has an identity that is given to him or her but at the same time, we can also become many different things. We are changed by our encounters with others. This is why I feel bridge-building is something we need to pay close attention to,” she says.

“(Similarly) my brother, despite much opposition at times, has insisted on keeping people in the same room and keeping the conversation going — with the acknowledgement that we can be profoundly changed by these encounters, and that we might be surprised by who we become.”

Her mother’s work is partly the reason for Soetoro-Ng’s visit here. Last week, she launched Dunham’s collection of batik, on display at the Islamic Arts Museum here until July 20.

It is her first visit here but she says Malaysia has always held a special connection as both her parents-in-law were born and raised in Sabah. She met her husband, Konrad Ng, where her own parents did — at the University of Hawaii.
“I  always tell people it’s a great place to find a spouse,” she quips.

On Malaysia, she says: “I feel like I’ve landed in a place like home. There is a great deal in common between Malaysia and Indonesia — in the language, the expressions and the arts. I hope this will be the first of many visits to come.”
Soetoro-Ng, who joined Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008, is set to go on the road again this summer to help secure his re-election.

She says she plans to share the story of Obama’s accomplishments with as many people as possible, before resuming her work at the EWC in the fall.

“He is an incredible man and politician who takes a practical view of things. He understands that it is very challenging to make everyone happy but he has to think very broadly about his responsibilities to as much of his constituency as possible,” she says.

She is certain that Obama will be re-elected, despite the weakened US economy and his recent announcement supporting same-sex marriages.

“I feel confident that he will be in a position to continue, in the next few years, much of the good work he’s done — in laying the foundation for a society that is more just, where the government is truly helpful to the people.”
 

 

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