IN A VISIT tipped to offer benefits to both the United States and Indonesia, Barack Obama returned to the Jakarta on Friday to speak to university students studying in the same city where he lived for four years as a boy in the 1960s.

Obama’s speech at the University of Indonesia focused on development, democracy and religion – as well as his childhood memories from his years in Indonesia.

The president was visiting Jakarta in an attempt to foster greater links with the rising Asian power, and also spoke of repairing relations and promoting understanding between the Muslim world and the west.

The US president praised Indonesia for being both an Islamic country and a democracy. In a call for religious understanding, Obama recalled how his grandfather – who lived in Indonesia – was “was raised a Muslim” but “firmly believed that all religions were worthy of respect”, the New York Times reports.

He said:

Our world has grown smaller and while those forces that connect us have unleashed opportunity, they also empower those who seek to derail progress.

One bomb in a marketplace can obliterate the bustle of daily commerce. One whispered rumour can obscure the truth, and set off violence between communities that once lived in peace. In an age of rapid change and colliding cultures, what we share as human beings can be lost.

Slamet Effendi Yusuf, a deputy chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, one of Indonesia’s largest Islamic organizations told the newspaper:

I thought the speech was very good because it showed that Obama knows about the people of Indonesia, our cultures and traditions, and mentioned what we have in common.

He was arguing against the people who say that there is something incompatible between Islamic and Christian civilizations.

However, not all those listening to the president’s 30-minute speech reacted so positively. Skeptics pointed out that previous speeches made by Obama in Egypt and Turkey, during which he also ‘reached out’ to the Muslim world, had not resulted in significant change in US foreign policy.

Anis Matta, the secretary general of biggest Islamist political party, said that Obama could strike a chord with the world’s Muslims if he made steps towards meaningful process on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Just one day before Obama’s speech, on Wednedsay, Israel announced plans to build 1,300 new settlement homes in the disputed lands of east Jerusalem.

“What will Obama do in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?” Matta said, “If we don’t see any progress, what he says is just a speech.”

Concerns were also raised about the wisdom of reaching out the Islamic world through Indonesia: Despite 90 per cent of the country’s population being Muslim, Indonesia’s influence in the Middle East is limited.

Bantarto Bandoro, a political scientist at the University of Indonesia said:

The US is trying to use Indonesia as an arena from where it could rebuild its relations with the Muslim world, but that’s dangerous. Indonesia might be seen as being co-opted by the United States.