Book Review: A Promised Land

This book is thick! If you read the blog post called Reading: Not Just a Hobby that was published in March, you'd have noticed this book lying next to a bowl of KFC porridge, haha. I couldn't finish reading it then. Had to return the book to the library and waited for my turn to borrow it again. Was on queue for about three months and finally got it when June was ending. 

Now, was it any good? Prior to this, I happened to read another book Obama wrote called Dreams from My Father. The previous book told about his childhood and younger days,  so A Promised Land was like the next chapter of his life, when he started campaigning and became president. It was like picking up where I left off.

I liked how Obama began the book with life before presidency. You could see how his life totally changed the moment he became POTUS. I mean, White House is not just an office. He really lived there with his family and everywhere he went, he was followed by Secret Service agents and reporters. It was a strange life with not much freedom that I don't think was envied by many. 

Then there were events that became movies, namely The Big Short, Captain Phillips and Deepwater Horizon. The subprime mortgages was explained based on what his saw and experienced right before the financial crisis happened. As a president, he never thought he had to deal with the pirates of Somalia. Certainly didn't see that one coming! Finally, there was the BP oil spill.

It was fun to read about Obama's overseas trips and how he described the countries and his counterparts. His description about China was interesting. He had a good impression about Singapore and I liked it when he mentioned about Indonesia from time to time. But it came to the Middle East, the US foreign policies were such a mess. As a non-American, I couldn't help feeling that the US had this habit of interfering other country's affair. More often than not, it didn't end well. Libya was a good example of how disastrous it could be.

Talk about being a non-American, it was interesting to learn the relationship between Democrats and Republicans. You'd think that a country as advanced as the US would know how to put aside their differences and worked together, but that wasn't always the case. In fact, it was kind of rare. Apart from certain exceptional figures such as John McCain, Republicans had this tendency to block whatever Obama was doing, haha. The relationship among Senate, House and President was also rather convoluted from the perspective of an outsider.

Overall, it was a good book that offered a glimpse of how busy a US President was. Talk about the responsibilities he had and the challenges he faced, Fox News, Republican, Putin and even Donald Trump certainly didn't make it easy for Obama, haha. But still, the book was a great reminder of how cool Obama was. His conscience was clear. If that didn't make him a great president in the eyes of some Americans, at the very least he was a very decent human being that ever became the president of the most powerful nation on earth. 

Books by Obama.

Ulasan Buku: A Promised Land

Buku ini tebalnya lebih dari 700 halaman! Kalau anda sempat membaca artikel berjudul Membaca: Bukan Sekedar Hobi, anda pasti melihat buku ini tergeletak di samping bubur KFC, haha. Saat itu saya tidak sempat membaca sampai habis, jadi terpaksa saya kembalikan ke perpustakaan karena tidak bisa diperpanjang. Buku baru ini banyak peminatnya dan saya harus menunggu kira-kira tiga bulan lamanya dan baru mendapatkan giliran lagi di akhir bulan Juni. 

Apakah ini buku yang bagus? Setahun sebelumnya, saya membeli buku berjudul Dreams from My Father yang juga ditulis oleh Obama. Buku ini bercerita tentang masa mudanya di Amerika, Indonesia dan Kenya. Nah, buku A Promised Land ini bagaikan kelanjutan dari buku yang saya sebutkan barusan. Kisahnya tentang masa kampanye dan periode pertamanya sebagai presiden. 

Saya suka dengan cara Obama mengawali ceritanya dengan kehidupan sebelum menjadi presiden. Pembaca jadi bisa membayangkan bagaimana hidupnya berubah drastis setelah dia menjadi POTUS. Gedung Putih itu ternyata bukan sekedar tempat kerja, tapi juga rumah dan tempat tinggal presiden dan keluarganya. Semenjak menjabat, setiap langkahnya selalu diikuti oleh agen rahasia dan wartawan. Hilang sudah kebebasannya. Rasanya tidak seperti kehidupan yang membuat orang lain iri. 

Setidaknya ada tiga peristiwa dalam periode pertama ini yang kemudian diangkat menjadi film-film berjudul The Big Short, Captain Phillips dan Deepwater Horizon. Obama bercerita tentang asal-mula krisis ekonomi dari apa yang dilihat dan dialaminya sebelum dan selagi menjabat. Sebagai presiden, tidak terbayangkan olehnya bahwa dia harus berurusan dengan bajak laut Somalia. Dan kemudian ada pula bencana tumpahnya minyak bumi di Teluk Meksiko.

Seru rasanya membaca tentang kunjungan kerja Obama ke luar negeri. Pendapatnya tentang Cina sangat menarik. Dia juga terkesan dengan Singapura dan ada rasa senang saat membaca cerita singkatnya tentang Indonesia. Akan tetapi terasa pula bahwa politik luar negeri Amerika itu menimbulkan kekacauan di negara-negara Timur Tengah. Ada kesan bahwa Amerika itu suka ikut campur urusan negara lain. Hasilnya seringkali malah tambah ricuh. Libia adalah contoh hilangnya kestabilan dalam negeri setelah Amerika mendepak Gaddafi. 

Sebagai orang luar, hubungan antara Demokrat dan Republican itu cukup rumit dan membingungkan. Saya sempat menyangka bahwa negara liberal semaju Amerika pastilah bisa mengesampingkan perbedaan pendapat dan bekerja sama, namun kenyataan seperti itu jarang terjadi. Hanya beberapa tokoh yang berjiwa besar seperti John McCain yang bisa membedakan kepentingan partai dan rakyat. Alhasil, Republican sering menghambat dan menolak kebijakan Obama, haha. 

Secara keseluruhan, buku ini menawarkan gambaran yang gamblang tentang betapa sibuknya kehidupan seorang Presiden Amerika. Berat tanggung jawabnya, banyak pula tantangannya. Fox News, Republican, Putin dan bahkan Donald Trump silih berganti mendatangkan kesulitan baginya. Tapi di sisi lain, kita diingatkan kembali dengan sosok Obama yang kharismatik. Sebagai seorang politisi, nuraninya masih jalan. Jika itu tidak membuatnya menjadi presiden yang hebat di mata rakyatnya sendiri, setidaknya dia tetap dikenang sebagai pemimpin yang apa adanya dari sebuah negara adidaya.