'Any nation will do': New book reveals Barack Obama wanted to be prime minister of Indonesia at tender age of 9
By David Gardner
Last updated at 3:12 PM on 21st April 2011
Aiming high: Barack Obama pictured as a young boy with his mother Ann Durham, who brought him up partly in Indonesia
It turns out Barack Obama was dreaming big right from an early age - at just nine-years-old he announced he was going to be the prime minister of Indonesia.
The episode from a new biography of the president's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, reveals the roots of a hunger for power which has driven Mr Obama's heady rise from an eccentric upbringing in Hawaii and Indonesia to the White House.
It will bring a wry smile to the faces of 'birthers', who are not satisfied he was born in the U.S.
In A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother, author Janny Scott tells how young Barack - then known by the westernised abbreviation of 'Barry' - was pushed by his mother to reach for the sky right from the start.
Mrs Dunham died when she was just 52, never knowing the incredible heights her son would achieve.
But, according to the book, she had no doubts about his potential, even when he was nine.
Ms Scott wrote: 'It was clear to many that Ann believed Barry, in particular, was unusually gifted. She would boast about his brains, his achievements, how brave he was.'
'Benji Bennington, a friend of Ann's from Hawaii, told me, "Sometimes when she talked about Barack, she'd say, 'well, my son is so bright, he can do anything he ever wants in the world, even be president of the United States'. I remember her saying that".'
The book continues: 'Samardal Manan, who taught with Ann in Jakarta, remembered Ann saying something similar - that Barry could be, or perhaps wanted to be, the first black president.'
His mother's ambition was clearly not lost on the future U.S. president. When his Indonesian stepfather asked him once what he wanted to be when he grew up, he was probably expecting him to say an airline pilot or an athlete.
'"Oh, prime minister', Barry answered,' wrote Ms Scott.
Big dreams: A smiling Barack Obama pictured as a child in Indonesia. According to a new book he had a hunger for power even then
Resilience: Friends of Mr Obama's mother say the racist taunting he suffered in Indonesia helped develop his famous unflappable nature
As the mother of a mixed-race child, Mrs Dunham was also very aware of the challenges her son would face.
Growing up, he braved racist attacks from stone-throwing youths when he was just nine. Indonesian adults would also make jokes about the colour of his skin.
But 'Barry' was unfazed by the jibes and took them all in his stride, wrote Ms Scott.
In an article that will appear in Sunday's New York Times magazine, the writer describes Mr Obama's early life with his mother in Jakarta, where he lived between the ages of six and ten before returning to live with his grandparents in Hawaii.
Elizabeth Bryant, an American who also lived in Indonesia at the time, recalled 'Barry' as being fearless - but also extremely polite - at a lunchtime gathering.
Looking to the future: According to Janny Scott's book, Mr Obama once told his stepfather he wanted to be prime minister of Indonesia - at the age of nine
Miss Scott wrote: 'After lunch, the group took a walk, with Barry running ahead. A flock of Indonesian children began lobbing rocks in his direction. They ducked behind a wall and shouted racial epithets.
'He seemed unfazed, dancing around as though playing dodge ball "with unseen players", Bryant said.
'Ann did not react. Assuming she must not have understood the words, Bryant offered to intervene. "No, he's O.K.," Ann said. "He's used to it".'
The book continues: '"We were floored that she'd bring a half-black child to Indonesia, knowing the disrespect they have for blacks," Bryant said.
'At the same time, she admired Ann for teaching her boy to be fearless. A child in Indonesia needed to be raised that way - for self-preservation, Bryant decided.'
Eccentric childhood: Barack Obama spent four years living in this house in Jakarta, Indonesia
For two 'horrible' years during her time in Indonesia with her schoolboy son, Mrs Dunham worked at the U.S. Embassy.
Ms Scott wrote: 'Occasionally, she took Barry to work. Joseph Sigit, an Indonesian who worked as the office manager at the time, told me, "Our staff here sometimes made a joke of him because he looked different - the colour of his skin".
'"Joked with him - or about him?" I asked. "With and about him," Sigit said, with no evident embarrassment.'
The manner in which Mr Obama dealt with the taunts and teasing played a formative role in his famous unflappability.
Indonesian Kay Ikrana gara told the author: 'Self-control is inculcated through a culture of teasing.'
Her husband, known only as Ikrana gara, added: 'People tease about skin colour all the time. If a child allows the teasing to bother him, he is teased more. If he ignores it, it stops.'
Simple life: The bedroom in Jakarta where Barack Obama lived as a child along with the houseboy - who once hit him
Kay said: 'Our ambassador said this was where Barack learned to be cool. If you get mad and react, you lose. If you learn to laugh and take it without any reaction, you win.'
Mrs Dunham moved abroad with her young son after her marriage to her first husband - Mr Obama's namesake Kenyan father - collapsed.
She then fell in love with and wed another foreign student, Lolo Soetoro, 'an amiable, easy-going, tennis-playing graduate student from the Indonesian island of Java'.
They married in 1964 and three years later Ann followed her husband to Indonesia, now the world's most populous Muslim nation, with her son, then six.
'WHERE'S THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE?' NEW BOOK PROMISES TO REVEAL 'TRUTH' ABOUT OBAMA'S ORIGINS
A new book which promises to reveal the 'truth' about President Obama's origins went to press this week, the Drudge report has learned.
The book has already shot to number two in Amazon's bestseller list, even though it is not due to be released until May 17.
After three years of investigations, author Jerome Corsi - the man who put an end to John Kerry's presidential dreams with Swift Boat - has written Where's the Birth Certificate? The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President.
Mr Corsi has gone to ground ahead of its publication, and he is holding the findings close to his chest.
But a source close to the publisher told Drudge: 'It's utterly devastating. Obama may learn things he didn't even know about himself!'
The publisher has vowed to fight any legal action preventing publication, ahead of rumours the President's lawyers could block it.
An insider told Drudge: 'When Donald Trump said he sent PIs to Hawaii to get to the bottom of all this, he meant this book.'
On its Amazon listing, the book's publisher declares: 'Corsi exposes in detail key issues with Obama's eligibility, including the fact the President has spent millions of dollars in legal fees to avoid providing the American people with something as simple as a long-form birth certificate.
'The eligibility issue has major ramifications for every American.'
Ms Scott also spoke to Saman, who was a houseboy for the family in the early 1970s. He said Mrs Dunham was strict with her son.
Although the President, through a spokesman, denied his mother ever used corporal punishment, the book tells a different story.
'She talked about disciplining Barry, including spanking him for things where he richly deserved a spanking,' said Don Johnston, who worked with Mrs Durham in the early 1990s, sometimes travelling with her in Indonesia and living in the same house.
Ms Scott wrote: 'Saman said that when Barry failed to finish homework sent from Hawaii by his grandmother, Ann "would call him into his room and would spank him with his father's military belt".
'One evening in the house in Matraman, Saman said, he and Barry were preparing to go to sleep. They often slept in the same place, sometimes in the bunk bed in Barry's room, sometimes on the dining room floor or in the garden.
'On this occasion, Barry, who was eight or nine at the time, asked Saman to turn out the light.
'When Saman did not do it, he said, Barry hit him in the chest. When he did not react, Barry hit him harder, and Saman struck him back. Barry began to cry loudly, attracting Ann's attention.
'According to Saman, Ann did not respond. She seemed to realize that Barry had been in the wrong. Otherwise, Saman would not have struck him.'
Although she sent her son back to live with her parents in Hawaii when he was ten, Ann stayed behind in Indonesia, the country where she ended up spending most of her adult life.
But Ms Scott writes she steadily grew apart from her, and there was at least the suggestion of violent discord between them.
She would refuse to go with her husband to socialise with American executives in Jakarta when he was working for an Indonesian oil company, and after coming home late from a teaching job servants saw her with a towel covering up blood on her face, although nobody ever confirmed any domestic violence.
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