BBC World Forum: On President Obama's Jakarta Speech

In an interview on BBC’s “World Today,” Donald K. Emmerson, director of the Southeast Asia Forum, discussed President Obama’s November 10, 2010 speech in Jakarta. Many expected the talk to be addressed to, and focus on, the Muslim world, as a follow-up to Obama's remarks on that topic in Cairo in June 2009. Instead, said Emmerson, Obama did not speak to Muslims everywhere and did not to stress the Muslim character of Indonesia, but chose instead to highlight Indonesia as a diverse and democratic nation of multiple faiths. In Emmerson's judgment, this was the right thing to do.