A transgender Indonesian man who shot to fame after it emerged he had worked as US President Barack Obama’s nanny in the late 1960s wants nothing from “little Barry” but to meet him again some day.
TV crews and reporters have descended on the tiny concrete shack in an east Jakarta slum, where Turdi, 66, now makes a meager living from hand-washing his neighbors’ clothes.
“I am a big nobody, merely the help, so I expect nothing from Barry, but I certainly wish to see him again. Nothing more,” he said at his home, which sits by a foul-smelling sewage canal.
Photo: AFP
Turdi said he has fond memories of eight-year-old Obama, his US mother Ann Dunham and Indonesian stepfather Lolo Soetoro, who treated him “like family” during the two years he worked in their home in the upmarket Jakarta suburb of Menteng.
“It’s impossible he will visit me here in my rented room. And to travel to America is something that can only happen in dreams. God willing and with patience, we will meet again,” Turdi said.
The White House has not made any comment on the nanny’s reminiscences, but some of Obama’s old neighbors, who still live on the same street 40 years on, said they knew Turdi and accepted him as transgender.
However, during his time caring for the young boy who would become the US’ first black president, Turdi tried not to let on that he was transgender, never wearing women’s clothes around him.
“I felt very free when I dressed like a woman, as if I had been released from prison, but I always appeared manly in front of Barry. He was too young to know about our world,” Turdi said.
Although Obama was popular, his friends would make fun of the nanny, calling him banci, a derogatory Indonesian term for transgender people.
“When I’d fetch him from school, his friends would mock me and shout: ‘banci, banci,’ but he ignored them and would just say: ‘Come on, let’s go home,’” said Turdi, who asks his close friends to call him Evie.
The students would also tease Obama over his solid build, and his hair and complexion, he said.
“His friends would call him names like ‘Barry Negro’ when they lost a football match, but he would just laugh. He always said: ‘You must be prepared to win or lose a game,’” Turdi said.
Turdi said he was proud of Obama, the “ordinary black boy from a humble background who has become the American president.”
And he said he believed the US leader could help to eradicate “all discrimination in the world,” including against transgender people like himself.
Turdi said he and his transgender friends have suffered repeated abuse, to the point where he decided it was safer to keep his appearance masculine.
Homosexuals and transgender people are largely shunned in Indonesia, a Muslim-majority country of 240 million people, and attacks against gay people by Islamic hardliners are common.
Fortunately, Turdi’s slum community accepts transgenders, with about 50 living in the vicinity.
Despite his journey from Obama’s old home to the slums, including a stint as a sex worker, Turdi seems at peace with how things have turned out. He hopes to one day walk through Obama’s old elementary school with the president, having missed him when he visited Jakarta in 2010 and last year.
“I want to tell him that not only Americans, but everyone in the world salutes him,” he said.
“Once he pointed to a picture of [Indonesian] President Sukarno and said: ‘I hope I will grow up to become someone like him.’ I am proud that his wish came true,” Turdi said.
“And if the Barry I knew is the same Barry who is America’s No. 1 man, I’m sure he will accept me for the person I am, transgender or not,” Turdi added.
Australia has announced an agreement with the tiny Pacific nation Nauru enabling it to send hundreds of immigrants to the barren island. The deal affects more than 220 immigrants in Australia, including some convicted of serious crimes. Australian Minister of Home Affairs Tony Burke signed the memorandum of understanding on a visit to Nauru, the government said in a statement on Friday. “It contains undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residence of people who have no legal right to stay in Australia, to be received in Nauru,” it said. “Australia will provide funding to underpin this arrangement and support Nauru’s long-term economic
‘NEO-NAZIS’: A minister described the rally as ‘spreading hate’ and ‘dividing our communities,’ adding that it had been organized and promoted by far-right groups Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country yesterday that the center-left government condemned, saying they sought to spread hate and were linked to neo-Nazis. “March for Australia” rallies against immigration were held in Sydney, and other state capitals and regional centers, according to the group’s Web site. “Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” the Web site said. The group posted on X on Saturday that the rallies aimed to do “what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.” The group also said it was concerned about culture,
ANGER: Unrest worsened after a taxi driver was killed by a police vehicle on Thursday, as protesters set alight government buildings across the nation Protests worsened overnight across major cities of Indonesia, far beyond the capital, Jakarta, as demonstrators defied Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s call for calm. The most serious unrest was seen in the eastern city of Makassar, while protests also unfolded in Bandung, Surabaya, Solo and Yogyakarta. By yesterday morning, crowds had dispersed in Jakarta. Troops patrolled the streets with tactical vehicles and helped civilians clear trash, although smoke was still rising in various protest sites. Three people died and five were injured in Makassar when protesters set fire to the regional parliament building during a plenary session on Friday evening, according to
STILL AFLOAT: Satellite images show that a Chinese ship damaged in a collision earlier this month was under repair on Hainan, but Beijing has not commented on the incident Australia, Canada and the Philippines on Wednesday deployed three warships and aircraft for drills against simulated aerial threats off a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese forces have used risky maneuvers to try to drive away Manila’s aircraft and ships. The Philippine military said the naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) were concluded safely, and it did not mention any encounter with China’s coast guard, navy or suspected militia ships, which have been closely guarding the uninhabited fishing atoll off northwestern Philippines for years. Chinese officials did not immediately issue any comment on the naval drills, but they
RSS