A recently-erected statue of President Barack Obama as a 10-year-old boy will be removed from a public park here, city officials said Friday, bowing to vociferous criticism on Facebook just a month before Obama is scheduled to visit Indonesia.
The statue will be relocated as soon as possible to an elementary school that Obama attended during the four years he spent as a child here, the governor of Jakarta, Fauzi Bowo, told reporters.
More than 56,000 Facebook members joined an Indonesian-language Facebook group called "Take Down the Barack Obama Statue in Menteng Park." Critics also filed a lawsuit to force the city to remove the statue.
