The Obama Timeline

1966–1970

Indonesia

In 1966 or 1967, Ann Dunham marries Indonesian Muslim Lolo Soetoro Mangunharjo (1936–1987), who she had met at the University of Hawaii. By birth, Soetoro was Malaysian, but he lived in Indonesia most of his life. Soon after his marriage to Dunham, Soetoro returns, alone, to Jakarta, Indonesia. Obama and Dunham later move to Indonesia to join Soetoro, probably in 1967. (Soetoro’s U.S. visa was purportedly revoked in 1967 due to political unrest in Indonesia.) Soetoro then adopts Obama, whose name is changed to Barry Soetoro. Elementary school records in Indonesia list Obama’s name as Barry Soetoro, his religion as Islam, and his citizenship as Indonesian. While in Jakarta, Obama attends Franciscus Primary School (1967–1969) and Besuki State Elementary School Menteng 01 (1969–1971). [6, 14, 172, 289, 324, 329, 801, 2270]

Interestingly, while in the third grade in Indonesia, Obama writes an essay saying he wants to become president. Perhaps as a foreshadowing of future questions about his status as a natural born citizen of the United States, and the constitutionally relevant issue of divided loyalties, Obama includes in his essay the remark that he is not sure of “what country” he would like to be president. In fact, he wrote, “I want to be a president” rather than, “I want to be the president,” according to his teacher, Fermina Katarina Sinaga. [842 p. 30; 2039]

Lolo Soetoro had been an official of the Director General’s office in the TNI Topography division of the Indonesian Army. He later becomes an executive with American Mobil Corporation, where he is a key liaison between the oil company and the Suharto regime. Suharto had been “installed” as the American friendly Indonesian president in 1967, after a CIA-engineered 1965–1967 coup that deposed President Sukarno—who was considered soft on communism and a threat to American oil interests. Strangely, the leftist Ann Dunham, who would have been more politically sympathetic to the deposed Sukarno, marries Soetoro, a man with ties to the bloodthirsty dictator Suharto. [615, 842 p. 29]

Obama practices Islam while in Indonesia, irregularly attending prayer services at the mosque. According to one of his Indonesian school principals, Tine Hahiyary, the young Obama studied “Mangaji” (or “Mengagi”), which involves the recitation of the Quran (or Koran). Note that Mangaji, in Indonesian schools, requires learning to recite the Quran in the Arabic language, not the student’s native tongue; non-Muslims or even moderate Muslims would not send their child to Mangaji classes. Mangaji is much more demanding than what is expected of a Christian child who attends “Sunday School.” Obama likely was taught to read and write in Arabic, to recite from the Quran, and study the laws of Islam. (In his book, Dreams From My Father, Obama relates, “In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Koranic studies.”) Although Obama may insist he was never a Muslim, many Indonesians wonder why Obama is hiding his Muslim past. Former classmate Emirsyah Satar (now CEO of Garuda Indonesia) states that Obama “…was quite religious in Islam but only after marrying Michelle, he changed his religion.” [15, 251, 332, 336, 2039]

Another former Indonesian classmate, Rony Amiris, describes Obama as having enjoyed football, playing marbles, and being a very devout Muslim. Amiris states, “Barry was previously quite religious in Islam.” Classmate Emirsyah Satar relates that Obama “was often in the prayer room wearing a sarong.” Obama is frequently observed in the school’s prayer room and at the local mosque for traditional Friday prayers. (Obama’s official campaign Web site states, “Obama has never been a Muslim, and is a committed Christian. Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ.”) [332, 521, 2039]

Publicly, Obama denies he was ever a Muslim and claims he is a devout Christian. (Obama also alleges he was never in church when his pastor of 20 years, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, was spewing anti-white and anti-American rhetoric in one of his many angry sermons.) Many, if not most, of the world’s Muslims feel that “Obama may not want to be counted as a Muslim, but Muslims are eager to count him as one of their own.” If Obama is seen by radical Islamists as someone who denounced the Muslim religion to become a Christian, his background can be exploited to “argue that an apostate is leading the war on terror…” which can then help terrorists “…galvanize sympathizers into action.” But many Muslims may not care that Obama professes to be Christian as long as his policies are pro-Muslim and anti-Israel. (Muslims are permitted, and even encouraged, to lie if it furthers the cause of Islam; the term for the practice is “taqiyya.”) [252, 2626]

Purportedly, Obama was legally adopted by his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, which made Obama an Indonesian citizen according to Indonesian law. Because Indonesia does not allow dual citizenship, Obama thus lost his U.S. citizenship (if he even had it) when he became an Indonesian citizen in or about 1967. At that point, Obama also ceased to be a Kenyan citizen, according to both Indonesian and Kenyan law. Indonesian law would also have required Ann Dunham to renounce her U.S. citizenship for her marriage to Lolo Soetoro to have been considered legal in that country. If, after Obama returned to Hawaii, he applied for and was granted American citizenship he would be a naturalized citizen (like California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger) and not a natural born citizen, and would therefore be ineligible to serve as president of the United States. It is possible that Obama did not even bother to become a naturalized citizen of the United States and remains an Indonesian citizen even today. Appropriate federal records would be on file if Obama made application for naturalization. If they exist, they have not been made public. [258, 300, 305, 492]

Indonesia’s policy of not allowing dual citizenship must be respected by the United States in accordance with the Hague Convention of 1930. Further, Obama, as a child, was not specifically required to renounce his U.S.—that would have been an automatic result of his adoption by Lolo Soetoro. Fair or not, the consequence of Dunham’s marriage to Soetoro and Soetoro’s adoption of Obama was that he became an Indonesian citizen… regardless of whether he understood the situation at age five or six. [492]

According to Indonesian legal experts, it is extremely difficult for non-Indonesian citizens to enroll in public schools in that country. That was especially true during the 1960s, when Indonesia was a police state and Indonesian immigration officials and the police performed weekly checks on public schools to confirm citizenship compliance. This further supports the assumption that Obama was adopted by Soetoro. Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, has stated that Obama was adopted by their father, Lolo Soetoro. Soetoro-Ng, who was born in Indonesia on August 15, 1970, also has a Hawaiian birth registration. It is therefore illogical to argue that Obama’s short form Hawaiian certification of birth proves he was born in the United States when his half-sister has the same document yet was born in Indonesia. [329, 801, 1810, 1988]

Indonesia today still does not allow dual citizenship. Under Indonesia law, once Obama became a naturalized citizen by virtue of adoption he could not lose that status without relinquishing his citizenship in writing, under oath. If he did that, the government of Indonesia would have those records. If he did not do so by age 21, Obama is to this day still considered an Indonesian citizen by that country. His place of birth or the nationality of his mother is irrelevant; Indonesian law takes precedence under The Master Nationality Rule of Article 4 of the Hague Convention on 1930. Upon returning to the United States from Indonesia, Obama eventually satisfied the “five-years-after-age-14” residency requirement of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, thus making him a naturalized citizen of the United States at age 19. Residing in the United States for five or more years after attaining age 14 established the intent of Obama to become a U.S. citizen under the law, which supersedes the Indonesian citizenship over which he had no control because of his age at adoption. Nevertheless, while Obama may be a U.S. citizen he is likely not a natural born citizen. [801]

Obama claims that at age 9, while still in Indonesia, he ran across an article in Life magazine about a black man who had destroyed his skin with chemicals in an attempt to make it white. “I imagine other black children, then and now, undergoing similar moments of revelation,” Obama later writes. Life magazine, however, states that no such article ever appeared in its pages. The article was never in Ebony magazine either, which Obama later named as the source after he was told that Life did not run the story. [2288]