Dr. Michael Hannahan, Director of the University of Massachusetts Civic Initiative, returned Saturday from a two-week stay in Indonesia, where he traveled to major cities speaking about the current U.S. elections.

The U.S. State Department, which sponsored the trip, chose the topic due to the interest in U.S. elections that Indonesian groups have expressed.

“Indonesians are interested in the election, they’re interested in the United States,” says Hannahan.

“They like aspects of our system like campaign finance reporting. They don’t have anything like that,” he explained. According to Hannahan,Indonesians look at the U.S. as a model for their ten year old democracy.

Hannahan told his audiences that our election system is one that we have made our own and they must come up with one that works best for their country.

While Indonesians have a positive attitude towards some aspects of the States, Hannahan describes the Indonesian attitude towards America as “almost schizophrenic,” a combination of hope and blame.

“They like individual Americans. They don’t like Bush and they think policy towards the Middle East is negative,” says Hannahan.

One factor in the current U.S. presidential elections that Indonesians do feel positively about is Barack Obama.

“They love Obama,” said Hannahan. “They’d like to see someone from Indonesia become president. People would applaud when I mentioned his name.”

Senator Obama lived in Indonesia as a child for four years, according to CNN.

In the capital city of Jakarta, Hannahan spoke at the University of Indonesia, a public University and Al Azhar University.

In the blog Hannahan kept during his trip, he writes that the students at these Universities were “genuinely interested” in what he had to say, and asked excellent questions. Their inquiries ranged from U.S. foreign policy, to who is likely to win the current election and why Americans own guns.

According to Hannahan, Indonesian students’ clothing resembles that of American students and they are very tuned into pop culture. Indonesian students immediately recognized Chuck Norris in Mike Huckabee campaign ads that he showed, something UMass students can relate to.

Despite these similarities, Hannahan said there were still noticeable differences between Indonesian and American students.

“I think the biggest difference is a cultural difference. In the U.S. you’re 18 and you’re living on your own. Indonesians stay with their families for a lot longer,” he said. “Women often stay with their families until they are married and many men do also. They look at it more as a privilege. They feel lucky to be at a University.”

Alumni from the Civic Initiative’s Institute for Indonesian Secondary Educators served as Hannahan’s companions and guides during his trip. The 2006 program was a six week long course on educational systems in the U.S. that took place mainly on the UMass campus.

Hannahan visited the cities of Jakarta, Denpasar, Singaraja, Surabaya and Pekanbaru. The groups he spoke to included government officials, political party organizations, community leaders, business groups, and academics.

The UMass Amherst Civic Initiative creates educational research programs that work towards advancing democracy. It is a program of the UMass Donahue Institute, which is the public service, outreach and economic development unit of the UMass President’s office.