Sabahan root Konrad Ng has a link to Barack Obama Posted by MD at Dr
Konrad Ng, a Canadian with Sabahan root has a link to US Democrat
candidate Barack Obama. Small world.
http://malaysiadigest.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.htm
Pic: The family tree: Dr Konrad Ng, Maya, Howard and Joan posing for
a picture. Maya, who is Obama's half sister, is married to Ng whose
parents originally came from Sabah.
Blog: http://www.asianamericansforobama.com/tag/konrad-ng


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Ng, who has joined his wife at Obama campaign events in Hawaii, has
publicly praised his brother-in-law's cross-cultural sensitivities
and grasp of international issues.

"There hasn't been a presidential candidate who understands the Asian
Americans and Pacific Islanders experience as intuitively as Barack,"
Ng wrote in one campaign letter urging voters of Asian descent to
back Obama. "I hope that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders will
recognize this opportunity to support a candidate who can speak to
our diverse communities and bring real and beneficial change to our
country. It is time that we have someone in the White House who can
do it all."

-

Barack's Burlington relatives are Chicago-bound
Daniel Nolan
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/458023


To the world, the outdoor celebration Senator Barack Obama is staging
in Chicago on Tuesday will mark a huge milestone in the history of
the United States. Mayor Richard Daley is predicting more than a
million people will descend on Grant Park to help celebrate,
potentially, the election of the first black American to the highest
office in the land.

But to Burlington's Joan Ng, it will just be a family get-together.

Ng, 60, is the mother of Konrad Ng, Obama's brother-in-law and the
husband of his half-sister, Maya Soetoro. Ng and her husband Howard,
69, and their son Perry, 32, will be in the park to mark the end of
the election and their in-law's role in it.

"Our whole family is going," Ng said yesterday.

"We always get together when there are family events or so on. We
always get together when there are things like this."

She noted the family was on hand in 2004 when the Democrat won his
campaign to be elected a U.S. senator from Illinois.

"It was so exciting," she said. "We were just next to the stage and
there was all this excitement. It was like those movies you see on
elections."

The Ngs are leaving on the weekend for the Windy City and to link up
with other Obama family members. Joan Ng expects to be placed in an
area near the stage so she and the family can see his election night
address. She doubts very much the small Burlington contingent will be
brought on stage.

"We try to be quiet," said Ng, an artist who runs a local gallery.

She's unsure, however, whether her son Konrad, 34, and his family --
he and Maya have a four-year-old girl named Suhalia -- will be on
hand. The couple, who live in Hawaii, have stayed close to home
because of the illness of Madelyn Dunham. Dunham, who turned 86 on
Sunday, is the grandmother of Obama and Maya. She raised Obama since
he was 10.

Ng spoke to Dunham Sunday, wished her a happy birthday, and then they
both talked about Suhalia. Obama took a few days off his campaign
last week to spend time with his grandma and visited with Konrad and
Maya.

"She's a very strong lady," said Ng. "She's really very proud of
(Obama) and watches him on TV every day. He calls her every day."

Ng calls the election "very exciting," but stresses she and her
family take it all in stride. She says she's been following the
campaign through the media "on and off," and talks to her son Konrad
almost every day, but mostly about family issues such as Dunham's
health.

She's aware polls indicate Obama will be the next president, but does
not want to predict what will happen. She admits, however, attending
his inauguration and a visit to the White House has been talked about
and she hopes both come to pass.

"We think of it just as a family member running for president," Ng
said. "We don't feel any different because he's very down to earth.
It doesn't dawn on us he could be the next president. We have other
things to think about. We are like every other family."


Konrad's father Howard Ng was born in Sandakan and married his
mother, Joan from Kudat. Howard and Joan then moved to Canada where
Konrad Ng was born there. Though Konrad is a Canadian, his parents
are Malaysian (or maybe ex-Malaysian).

Konrad then married Maya Soetoro, a half-sister to Obama. Maya was
born to Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian businessman, and Ann Dunham, a
white American cultural anthropologist, who is also Obama's mother.

That give Obama not only one but two links to Asia, i.e. Indonesia
and Malaysia.

UPDATES:
* Nov 04, 2008: About Konrad Ng and US President to be

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Extract from TheStar
Obama has links to Malaysia
By SOO EWE JIN


PETALING JAYA: Dr Konrad Ng is amused that his Malaysian roots got
noticed halfway round the world, thanks to his link to Democrat
candidate Barack Obama.

An assistant professor at the University of Hawaii in Manoa (UHM),
Ng, whose family originally comes from Sabah, is married to Obama's
half-sister Maya Soetoro.

Maya and Obama have the same mother.

In an e-mail interview with The Star, Ng, 34, said that his father,
Howard, was born in Sandakan and his mother, Joan, in Kudat.

"I have many relatives who live throughout Malaysia, especially in
Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and the two towns where my parents came
from," he said.

His parents subsequently settled in Canada and Ng was born there.

Maya was born to Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian businessman, and Ann
Dunham, a white American cultural anthropologist, who is also Obama's
mother.

Ng said his parents return to Malaysia once every one to two years.

"It remains an important place of origin to them. In addition to a
large, extended family, they have many good friends in Malaysia. I
try to visit Malaysia every few years; it is a special country and
feels familiar to me," said Ng.

Maya, who was born in Jakarta, also cherishes her Indonesian roots.

According to Ng, she is active in the local Indonesian community and
continues to speak Indonesian when she can. She visits Indonesia
every few years.

Ng described Obama as exceptionally brilliant.

"He has a thorough understanding of the challenges we face and sound
judgment on how we should address these challenges.

"Barack is a dedicated family man and cares deeply about transforming
the world into a better place so that all families will have the same
opportunities to do better.

"South-East Asia is a place of connection for him and a region that
he understands well. It gave him numerous examples of alternative
modes of communication and perspective.

"Maya, Barack and I have talked about the beauty of South-East Asia
and our mutual desire to visit again," he said.


=========


Konrad Ng - Barack Obama's brother-in-law
http://www.zimbio.com/Maya+Soetoro-
Ng/articles/17/Konrad+Ng+Barack+Obama+brother+law


Konrad Ng, Barack's brother-in-law, made this short video encouraging
everyone to get out the vote in the final days of this election. He
is Maya Soetoro-Ng's husband. The Chinese-Canadian from Vancouver is
an Assistant Professor in the Academy for Creative Media at the
University of Hawaii. You can also check our Konrad's blog here.

More about Konrad Ng
Dr. Ng teaches courses in the Critical Studies track of the Academy
for Creative Media (ACM) curriculum. His current research and
teaching interests include: the art, history, politics and philosophy
of film and media; Asian, Asian American/Canadian and Oceanic cinema
and media culture; documentary form; transnational and transmedial
cultural formations; film festival and film industry culture;
critical social theory; postcolonial studies; and the politics of
gender, sexuality and race in cinema.

Dr. Ng received his PhD from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM)
in Political Science where his research explored diasporic formations
of Chinese cultural identity in narrative and experimental film and
video. Dr. Ng has taught several courses on film and media at UHM
and run workshops on curriculum and film for university educators at
the East-West Center (EWC).

Prior to joining the ACM, Dr. Ng was the Curator of Film and Video at
the Honolulu Academy of Arts where he managed the museum's acclaimed
art house film program and was part of the curatorial team for the
museum's Contemporary Masters program - an ongoing series of
contemporary art exhibitions that has featured paintings by Neo
Rauch, video installations by Bjorn Melhus and a large scale multi-
media sculptural installation by Won Ju Lim.

Dr. Ng was also a film programmer for the Louis Vuitton Hawaii
International Film Festival and the Program Manager for the UHM/EWC
International Cultural Studies Graduate Certificate Program, an
advanced course of study in the dynamics of global popular culture.
Dr. Ng received his M.A. in the Cultural, Social and Political
Thought Program at the University of Victoria and his B.A. in
Philosophy from McGill University. He has published scholarly and
popular articles on film.


===


Maya Soetoro-Ng - A Brief Biography
http://ezinearticles.com/?Maya-Soetoro-Ng---A-Brief-
Biography&id=1315153


Maya Kassandra Soetoro-Ng, a name peculiar to some but dazzling to
many, was born in August 15, 1970. She was the product of her father
Lolo Soetoro, who worked as a businessman with Indonesian decent and
her mother Ann Dunham, an American cultural anthropologist, who
happened to be Barack Obama's mother as well. This gives her the same
lineage as the ever popular Obama, who is the Democratic Party
nominee for the U.S. presidency, making her his official half sister.

Early in her lifetime, she studied in Punahou College Prep School
just as her half brother did. Later on, she moved to greater heights
finishing her Ph.D. in Education from one of Honolulu's most
prestigious public institutions named the University of Hawaii at
Manoa, in the year 2006. She worked as a teacher in two separate
schools namely Hawaii School for Girls High School and did some
evening classes at the University of Hawaii. In support for her
brother's phenomenal charge towards the top seat, she proclaimed to
give her all out support to Obama in the summer of 2007 even if she
had to take a couple of months off from her jobs just to make sure
that she is there campaigning beside him.

Moreover, her private family life was filled with bright colors after
marrying Konrad Ng, who came from a mix of Chinese-Canadian ancestry
and who was also working as a subordinate professor in one of
Hawaii's most famous universities. Their love lead to the birth of
their only daughter named Suhaila. With diverse cultural and
spiritual influences from her family, Maya Kassandra Soetoro-Ng
embraced Buddhism as her primary religion.


====


Obama's multi-ethnic family joins his quest for the top
Randy Boswell , Canwest News Service
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=e90a0327-fc04-467b-
a511-22c0a95c20a2&k=56010


As sniping over race and identity politics threatens to engulf the
U.S. Democratic presidential contest, Senator Barack Obama's multi-
ethnic roots and cosmopolitan kin - including his Chinese-Canadian
brother-in-law - have become part of his campaign pitch to voters.

Konrad Ng, a University of Victoria- and McGill-educated film
professor now living in Hawaii, is married to Obama's sister Maya
Soetoro-Ng, and is part of what the White House hopeful has described
as a "mini-United Nations" of family members who help shape his
global perspective.

"If I am the face of American foreign policy and American power,"
Obama observed in a recent New York Times interview, "I think that if
you can tell people, 'We have a president in the White House who
still has a grandmother living in a hut on the shores of Lake
Victoria and has a sister who's half-Indonesian, married to a Chinese-
Canadian,' then they're going to think that he may have a better
sense of what's going on in our lives and in our country. And they'd
be right."

Fiery arguments over alleged race-based electoral strategies have
erupted in Democratic circles after recent comments by Obama's chief
rival, Senator Hillary Clinton, were slammed by some critics as
giving too much credit to former president Lyndon B. Johnson - and
shortchanging Martin Luther King, Jr. - for the triumph of the civil
rights movement in the 1960s.

Obama is the son of a black Kenyan man, Barack Obama, Sr., and a
white woman from Kansas, Ann Dunham, who met at the University of
Hawaii. Obama was born in Honolulu in 1961 and largely raised in the
American island state.

Obama shot to national political stardom with an electrifying speech
at the 2004 Democratic National Convention highlighted by the
line: "There's not a black America and white America and Latino
America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. In
no other country on earth is my story even possible."

Obama's parents separated when he a boy, and his mother later married
an Indonesian man, Lolo Soetoro. The family spent four years in
Indonesia - where his sister, Maya Soetoro, was born - before Obama
returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents and attend
high school.

Obama's sister also later returned to Hawaii, where she works today
as a teacher. She met Ng - who studied philosophy at McGill and
cultural studies at the University of Victoria - while he was
completing his PhD in political science at the University of Hawaii.

He now teaches courses on international cinema and popular culture at
the university's Academy for Creative Media, and has organized film
festivals and lectures exploring the Asian movie industry.

In an e-mail sent this week to Canwest News Service, Ng politely
declined to answer questions about his Canadian background or to
comment on Obama's presidential bid: "For now, we (the family) aren't
doing international press requests until after the nomination is
decided."

But Ng, who has joined his wife at Obama campaign events in Hawaii,
has publicly praised his brother-in-law's cross-cultural
sensitivities and grasp of international issues.

"There hasn't been a presidential candidate who understands the Asian
Americans and Pacific Islanders experience as intuitively as Barack,"
Ng wrote in one campaign letter urging voters of Asian descent to
back Obama. "I hope that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders will
recognize this opportunity to support a candidate who can speak to
our diverse communities and bring real and beneficial change to our
country. It is time that we have someone in the White House who can
do it all."

Obama also made note of his Ng's Canadian roots during a 2006
appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

"Michelle (Obama's wife) will tell you that when we get together for
Christmas or Thanksgiving, it's like a little mini-United Nations ...
I've got relatives that look like Bernie Mac and I've got relatives
that look like Margaret Thatcher. We've got it all."