Cross-posting this article from The Assiciated Press
JAKARTA,
Indonesia (AP) -- From his old school in Indonesia to a Japanese beach
town that happens to share his name, people around the world cheered
President Barack Obama's re-election Wednesday and expressed hope that
he will help allay global conflicts and economic woes.
The
results of Tuesday's election were closely watched in many countries.
Several U.S. embassies held mock elections and threw parties as returns
came in.
At Jakarta's Menteng 01
Elementary School, which Obama once attended, students happily marched
with a poster of the president from one classroom to another after
hearing that he had defeated Republican Mitt Romney to win a second
term. "Obama wins ... Obama wins again," they shouted.
A statue of a young "Barry" Obama, as he was called as a child, stands outside the school.
"I want to be like him, the president," student Alexander Ananta said.
The
news also thrilled Obama's former nanny in Indonesia, Evie, who became
well known this year following reports of her struggles living in the
conservative country as a transgender.
"Hopefully,
he will contribute to the betterment of not only American citizens, but
to the world as well," said Evie, who like many Indonesians uses only
one name.
China's Foreign Ministry said
President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiaobao phoned Obama to
congratulate him. Vice President Xi Jinping, who is to begin taking over
this week in China's once-a-decade leadership transition, phoned Vice
President Joe Biden to congratulate him.
British
Prime Minister David Cameron posted his regards on Twitter: "Warm
congratulations to my friend (at)BarackObama. Look forward to continuing
to work together."
Though Iranian
media have long said the country saw little difference between Obama and
Romney on tensions over Tehran's nuclear program, that did not stop the
semiofficial Fars news agency for rolling out the vivid headline,
"Republican's elephant crushed by Democrat's donkey."
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has had a strained relationship
with the American president over his policies on Iran and the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, congratulated the president in a text
message to reporters. "I will continue to work with President Obama to
preserve the strategic interests of Israel's citizens," he said.
The
Western-backed Palestinian Authority has been disappointed that Obama
did not pressure Israel to make greater efforts to make peace with the
Palestinians, including a freeze on all settlement construction. In the
absence of negotiations, senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat urged
the U.S. president to reverse course and support Palestinian efforts to
seek U.N. General Assembly recognition of an independent state of
Palestine.
"We have decided to take our
cause to the United Nations this month, and we hope that Obama will
stand by us," Erekat told Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency.
In
China, Obama's re-election was good news for people concerned about
Romney's vow to label China a currency manipulator if elected. Some
feared that would ignite a trade war between the world's two biggest
economies.
"His re-election is in line
with what the Chinese people want," said Hong Zihan, a graduate student
who monitored the results at a U.S. Embassy event in Beijing.
For
Obama, Japan, the president's re-election means more opportunity to
capitalize on their shared name. Obama means "little beach" in Japanese.
The
western coastal town threw a party as they watched the election
returns. Hula dancers known as the Obama Girls swayed in homage of the
president's home state of Hawaii, said Obama city hall official Hirokazu
Yomo.
"Four more years," Yomo said. "So we are happy this will continue and help with building our city."
In
Myanmar, which is pushing political reforms forward after five decades
of military rule kept it isolated from much of the rest of the world,
some said they were relieved Obama was re-elected because he chosen to
engage rather than sanction their country.
"It
is good that President Obama is re-elected. President Obama is very
flexible and international relations have improved during his term,"
said Thit Oo, a 42-year-old car mechanic.
Washington
has started focusing more on Asia since Obama took office. Some Asian
countries, including the Philippines and Vietnam, have been looking more
toward the U.S. as tensions flare with China over disputed territories
in the South China Sea.
"In Asia, he
needs to fine tune the building of alliances without overtly appearing
anti-China," Ramon Casiple, a political analyst in the Philippines, said
of Obama. "At the same time, he needs to encourage countries with
border disputes with China that he's on their side."
A
spokesman for the main Syrian opposition bloc, the Syrian National
Council, expressed hope that the election victory would free Obama to do
more to support those trying to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"We
hope this victory for President Obama will make him free more to make
the right decision to help freedom and dignity in Syria and all over the
world," SNC spokesman George Sabra said on the sidelines of an
opposition conference on the Qatari capital of Doha.
Sabra renewed the opposition's appeal to the international community to supply rebel fighters with weapons.
The
Obama administration and its Western allies have ruled out military
intervention in Syria. The U.S. has also been cool to opposition rebels'
demands for weapons such as anti-aircraft missiles, out of concern that
they could fall into the wrong hands. The U.S. and other foreign
backers of the Syrian uprising have urged the fractured, largely
exile-based opposition to unite and include more representatives from
inside Syria.
----
Associated
Press writers Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, Didi Tang in Beijing,
Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo, Amy Teibel in Jerusalem, Karin Laub in Doha,
Qatar, and Aye Aye Win in Yangon, Myanmar, contributed to this report.
