Obama Celebrates Diversity, Discusses Daily News Cycle and ‘Absence of American Leadership’ in Indonesian Speech (Video)

“What I Was Worried About Was, ‘What are They Going to Write About me in 20 Years?’”

As Senate Republicans further attempted to strip millions of their healthcare and Donald Trump continued his war on the free press this week, former President Barack Obama celebrated diversity and inclusion in a speech in Indonesia.

“Obama was greeted by a crowd of thousands, including leaders, students and businesspeople, in Jakarta, where he opened the Fourth Congress of Indonesian Diaspora,” the Associated Press reported.

Obama lived in Jakarta as a boy before returning to Hawaii at the age of ten to live with his grandparents, and gave the speech toward the end of his Indonesian vacation with Michelle, Sasha and Malia Obama.

“My time here made me cherish respect for people’s differences,” the former president said. “If we don’t stand up for tolerance and moderation and respect for others, if we begin to doubt ourselves and all that we have accomplished, then much of the progress that we have made will not continue.” 

“What we will see is more and more people arguing against democracy, we will see more and more people who are looking to restrict freedom of the press,” he continued, “and we’ll see more intolerance, more tribal divisions, more ethnic divisions, and religious divisions and more violence.”

On the press and the news cycle, Obama advised that he wasn’t concerned with daily headlines. “What I was worried about what, ‘What are they going to write about me 20 years from now when I look back?’”

While Obama didn’t directly comment on his successor, he did discuss Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the historic Paris Climate Agreement.

“In Paris, we came together around the most ambitious agreement in history about climate change,” he said, “an agreement that even with the temporary absence of American leadership, can still give our children a fighting chance.”

The opening of President Obama’s speech can be seen below:

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