A statue depicting US President Barack Obama as a boy was Sunday removed from a park in Indonesia's capital, officials said. The two-metre (six-foot) bronze was removed from Menteng Park and taken to nearby Menteng One primary school, which Obama attended in the late 1960s, vice-principal Akhmad Solikhin told AFP.
"Workers hired by the school, local government and alumni spent an hour removing the statue with electric equipment," he added. "We'll need another two to three days to place the statue at the compound near the school gate so the public can see it when they pass by," Solikhin added.
The decision to move the statue comes after more than 57,000 people joined a page on social networking website Facebook calling for the statue to be removed and replaced by a memorial to an Indonesian identity. "There were people who opposed it. For us, we'd like the statue to be in the school to inspire the children to have big dreams like Obama," Solikhin said.
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