It is still hard for me to believe that an African-American now leads the US.
Given the fact the country is the only global supreme power, which was traditionally led by a white, the triumphant victory of Barack Obama as the new U.S. president-elect still sounds like a dream.

But, the dream is among those that come true anyway.

Everybody, not just the American supporters of Obama, are now seemingly lost in the euphoria of his historical triumph. So are so many Indonesians here.
From elementary school students to university lecturers, from journalists to senior government officials, from rural to urban people, they are surprisingly overjoyed with his victory.

In addition to sentimental reason related to Obama's brief stay in Indonesia's capital of Jakarta during his childhood, we seem to expect much from the first ever U.S. black president that he will indeed bring changes.

Not just a little changes that have always been done by former U.S. presidents compared with what their respective predecessors did; but very significant changes, notable changes that are as notable as the history Obama has just made.

We expect that United States' foreign policy will change substantially, as the Illinois senator has always promised during his presidential campaigns.

We expect he will give fair treatment to Guantanamo detainees, draw the U.S. military troops from Iraq, and be perhaps less Islamophobic (this last one is of Muslims' expectation, of course).
For Indonesians in particular, we naively expect that his winning over the U.S. top seat will change the way America sees us, and make it pay better attention to us (This is quite embarrassing and sounds pathetic to me, indeed).

But, the big question is, can he really bring the much-expected changes?
Will the changes he bring as substantial as the history he has made?

While formerly I was blurred over these questions, which most of his Indonesian fans don't seemingly really care about, a news analysis that one of my senior editors has recently written gives me a better sight.

The points of his writing is that unfortunately, the fact is Obama hardly mentioned Indonesia in his campaigns, so our fool, pathetic expectation that America will thus pay us better attention won't likely become true.

And of his foreign policy, we might still be able to expect that the U.S. military troops will eventually leave Iraq (because the Iraqi war makes US bankrupt anyway), and that Guantanamo prisoners will be treated better.
What about Islamophobic? I'm not sure about this, indeed. With Obama being associated frequently with Islam and then terrorism, I'm afraid that even if he doesn't hate Muslims as much as Bush does, he won't obviously show his sympathy, too.

In the case of Palestine and Israeli conflict, that boss of mine also makes things much clearer for us; that the United States will never leave its traditional blinded siding with Israel. And so, the bloody, long conflict will likely never be settled.

So, although Obama's victory at the presidential race is indeed a dream coming true, it is unlikely that other dreams related to him will all come true, too.

I just wonder then, how much changes he can bring?
I'm watching...