Jakarta:
A statue of Barack Obama as a boy was installed on Monday at the Indonesian primary school, which the US president attended in the late 1960s in the capital Jakarta.
More than six feet, the bronze statue has been placed in the compound of Menteng One school after it was removed from a nearby park last Sunday, vice-principal Akhmad Solikhin told AFP.
"We put the statue near the entrance gate of the school so everyone can see it when they pass by. Everyone is welcome to see it," he said.
"The children are also happy that we've moved it here. The costs from removing the statue from the park to putting it up again at the school were 3,200 dollars paid for by donors," Solikhin said.
More than 57,000 people had joined a page on the social networking website Facebook calling for the statue to be removed from the park and replaced by a memorial to an Indonesian figure.
But Ron Mullers, chairman of the group Friends of Obama, which paid for the statue, said the move was not a response to those objections. "We feel the school is the best place to be... because this was where he went to school and this is a memory for him," he said.
The statue of "Little Barry" -- as Obama was known to his Indonesian school friends -- was designed by Indonesian artists and depicts the boy Obama dressed in shorts and a T-shirt with a butterfly perched on his hand.
More than six feet, the bronze statue has been placed in the compound of Menteng One school after it was removed from a nearby park last Sunday, vice-principal Akhmad Solikhin told AFP.
"We put the statue near the entrance gate of the school so everyone can see it when they pass by. Everyone is welcome to see it," he said.
"The children are also happy that we've moved it here. The costs from removing the statue from the park to putting it up again at the school were 3,200 dollars paid for by donors," Solikhin said.
More than 57,000 people had joined a page on the social networking website Facebook calling for the statue to be removed from the park and replaced by a memorial to an Indonesian figure.
But Ron Mullers, chairman of the group Friends of Obama, which paid for the statue, said the move was not a response to those objections. "We feel the school is the best place to be... because this was where he went to school and this is a memory for him," he said.
The statue of "Little Barry" -- as Obama was known to his Indonesian school friends -- was designed by Indonesian artists and depicts the boy Obama dressed in shorts and a T-shirt with a butterfly perched on his hand.
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