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Bush in Bali: Hello, you must be
going
By Gary LaMoshi
DENPASAR, Bali - From the moment I heard that US
President George W Bush had planned a three-hour stop in
Bali, where I spend much of my time, I've been consumed
with a simple question: Why?
Indonesia is the
nation with the world's largest Muslim population, more
than 80 percent of its estimated 220 million people
classify themselves as followers of Islam. It also
exemplifies that rhyming mantra from the Bush
presidential campaign: "I'm a uniter, not a divider."
Thanks to policies put forth by the Bush administration,
85 percent of Indonesians hold unfavorable views of the
United States, according to a US-sponsored survey.
In early 2002, 61 percent of Indonesians polled
expressed favorable views of the US. Then came the
attack on Iraq, which undermined sympathy for the US
that had followed the attacks of September 11, 2001, and
fueled the belief that the US "war on terrorism" was
really a war on Islam.
Western media presume
that Bush's visit was staged to boost Indonesian
President Megawati Sukarnoputri's standing in next
year's election. The poll numbers, however, suggest
Bush's that visit will be anything but helpful to
Megawati. Besides, Bush and Megawati were just in
Bangkok at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
summit, where they could have talked and created photo
ops with far less trouble.
That Indonesian
authorities approved this lightning quick engagement
indicates the political leadership's profound insulation
from the concerns of the vast majority of Indonesians.
Muslim leaders representing the two largest Muslim
community groups and Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic
University, had to defend the acceptance of invitations
to meet with Bush. Although they emerged from their
five-minute dialogues praising the US president's
willingness to listen and seemed delighted with his
US$157 million educational aid package, unless US
policies in the Middle East change, that goodwill will
prove short-lived.
An acerbic commentary in the
English-language Jakarta Post newspaper chided Bush for
spending only three hours in Indonesia but eight in the
Philippines with his fellow presidential offspring in
Daddy's old chair. The article stated: "Megawati's
minders have perhaps advised her not to ask for any
favors, as one cannot pin much hope on anything that
comes out of Bush's mouth." That from a moderate
newspaper read by expatriates and local elites.
The only group that would salute Megawati's
welcome to Bush was the military. Under Megawati, the
armed forces have abandoned pretenses of reform and
gotten a free hand to profiteer while waging war against
separatists in Papua and Aceh, resource-rich areas at
the eastern and western ends of the archipelago where US
companies hold sway.
Unfortunately, the military
hasn't been able to resist its old ways; its alleged
role in a fatal attack on teachers from the
Freeport-McMoran mining complex in Papua has kept it on
the US military aid blacklist. Bush so desperately wants
to overturn that ban that he wrongly hinted it had
softened during an earlier stop.
If reasons for
Megawati to greet Bush are obscure, the motives for the
Oval Office to insist on this visit over the objections
of the Secret Service are even more difficult to fathom.
At home, just as in Indonesia and other nations, fine
words and photo ops won't win hearts and minds if voters
reject the administration's policies. Bush won't make
friends among Muslims if he gives the back of his hand
to Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad for anti-Semitic words
but continues his unquestioning support for Israel and
keeps invading Muslim countries.
The only
logical explanation for Bush's zeal to visit Indonesia
is that he truly believes his brief appearance will help
Indonesia's moderate elements and that lecturing Muslims
about what Islam stands for will persuade them rather
than offend them. Based on similar arrogance, and
perhaps good intentions, the White House once believed
Iraqis would welcome US invaders as liberators. But
Bush's visit, like the invasion of Iraq, only makes the
situation more dangerous.
The Bush
administration's near-obsession with terrorism deepens
the impression in Indonesia that terrorism is a Western
problem that's victimizing innocent Indonesia, and that
tough anti-terror measures serve Western interests, not
Indonesia's (see Indonesia's terror blame game, Oct
4). Even though both the Bali bombing of October 2002 -
which killed 202 in the deadliest terror attack since
September 11, 2001 - and the car bombing at the Marriott
Hotel in Jakarta in August featured Indonesian plotters
(alleged international terrorism links are vague and
unproved) attacking Indonesian targets, Indonesians
increasingly focus on the intended Western victims.
Megawati herself summed up the view in her
remarks to the United Nations General Assembly last
month. She urged that "countries whose citizens become
the main target of terrorist groups should review their
conventional anti-terrorism policies, particularly in
dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict". In other words,
bombers don't cause terrorism, Western policies that
make their citizens prey for terrorists do.
Few
Indonesians criticized the investigation of the Bali
bombing, but Muslim groups and politicians increasingly
condemn police for the zealous pursuit of suspects in
the Marriott case and alleged members of Jemaah
Islamiya, the radical group linked to the Bali bombings
that even some moderate leaders dismiss as a figment of
Western imagination. Flaunting the government's ties to
the United States makes law enforcement's task harder
and further terror attacks more likely.
So, Mr
Bush, thanks for visiting Bali. It would have been much
better if you'd acted like most tourists - gotten your
hair braided on Kuta Beach, watched exotic ceremonies at
a Hindu temple and gawked at the lush scenery featuring
terraced rice paddies along the sides of volcanoes.
Better yet, you should have listened to your own State
Department's travel advisory and stayed away.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All
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