DENPASAR,
Bali - Indonesia's military scored
a major victory this week without firing a shot. The
re-election of US President George W Bush ensures restoration
of full military ties between the US and Indonesia,
including millions of dollars in aid, and also
ensures that US demands for military reform will
remain muted. That's bad news for democracy in Indonesia
and the United States' standing in Indonesia in the long
run.
In addition to its symbolic value as the
world's largest predominantly Muslim country, Indonesia
also lies along the strategically vital Strait of
Malacca shipping lanes. But the Bush administration has
seen Indonesia largely through the prism of its "war on
terror", and despite a brief presidential fly-in last
year, the administration's policy has mainly been one of
neglect (see Bush in Bali: Hello,
you must be going, October 29, 2003).
The
administration of president Bill Clinton cut off
aid to the Indonesian military, known by its Indonesian
abbreviation TNI (Tentara Nasional Indonesia), in 1999 after
TNI-backed militias, if not army units, killed hundreds
in East Timor. However, as part of its declared "war on
terrorism", the Bush administration wants to get back
into bed with TNI.
Indonesia's then-president Megawati
Sukarnoputri's lucky star made her the first foreign
leader to visit the White House after September 11,
2001. She secured a promise of increased aid, including
funding for the police force that, until 1999, was part
of the military. After the Bali bombings of October
2002, the US, its ally Australia, and other countries
have stepped up cooperation with the police.
Help, police While the police gained
stature for cracking the Bali case (see Police earn 'A',
Megawati gets 'F', November 29, 2002), the
increased engagement with the West hasn't encouraged
deep reform. Endemic corruption has not eased; a police
job in Bali requires a gratuity of Rp20 million
(US$2,200) despite a salary of Rp500,000 per month. Last
month, police stood by as Muslim vigilantes sacked a bar
in Jakarta for serving alcohol during the Islamic holy
month of Ramadan. While the attackers wore the robes of
Islam, these attacks are often associated with payoffs
or failure to make them.
In his valedictory
address at the end of his tenure in Jakarta, US
ambassador to Indonesia Ralph Boyce called the failure
to reinstitute full military ties as his biggest
disappointment. Boyce laid the blame on TNI for failing
to reform. The carrot of restored US aid hasn't
encouraged TNI to change meaningfully.
It's been
a very good four years for the Indonesian military
during Bush's watch. TNI remains dominated by henchmen
of deposed president Suharto and his autocratic regime.
No military officers have been convicted for the
atrocities in East Timor, or the murder of Theys Eluay,
leader of a peaceful separatist movement in Papua. The
war against separatists in resource-rich Aceh in the far
western corner of the archipelago grinds on with
widespread reports of abuses against civilians,
lucrative shakedown opportunities, and no prospect of a
political settlement.
Despite giving up
its appointed seats in parliament, TNI remains deeply
enmeshed in politics. TNI has not scrapped its regional
command system of troops posed in the provinces, a
remnant of its "dwi fungsi " (dual
function) doctrine that put it in charge of internal
security. Suharto's last chief of staff, Wiranto, under
United Nations indictment for his role in the East
Timor killings, won the former ruling party's nomination
for the presidency and nearly made it to a runoff
against another former general, newly elected President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who appointed Wiranto's
successor, retired admiral Widodo A S, as his top minister for
political, security and legal affairs.
Play
ball Rather than push for reform, the Bush
administration has shown it's willing to play ball with
the brass in the name of fighting terrorism. Ironically,
TNI bears a great deal of the responsibility for
unleashing the forces of radical Islam behind
Indonesia's most recent terror attacks. The military's
support of jihad against Christians in Ambon and
central Sulawesi gave Muslim militants legitimacy and a
fertile breeding ground. That was part of generals'
campaign to destabilize the regime of then-president
Abdurrahman Wahid, who threatened real military reform,
a campaign that included the 1999 bombing of the Jakarta
Stock Exchange Building (see Terrorism links in
Indonesia point to military, October 8).
None of that seems to matter to the Bush
administration. The US Justice Department has endorsed
the indictment of a petty crook for the attack on a
convoy of Americans and Indonesians working at the
Freeport MacMoRan mine in Papua in 2001, when all signs
point to military involvement. (see Terrorism key
in US support for Indonesian army, September 23).
That incident has been the latest roadblock to resumed
military aid. Expect the second Bush administration to
fight to sweep this attack under the rug and sweep aside
congressional opposition.
Embracing
TNI distances the US from the forces of reform and
democracy in Indonesia, and carries a double or triple whammy
for long-term US interests. The most successful reform party
in Indonesia's new parliament is the Prosperous Justice
Party (PKS), and former president Wahid, a Muslim cleric,
remains the leading figure of reform and moderate Islam.
Despite its use of Muslim militants to do its dirty work
as far back as the mass killing after the 1965 coup
that deposed founding president Sukarno in favor of
Suharto, TNI is seen as an enemy of Islam in Indonesia.
Low ratings Under Bush,
specifically since the invasion of Iraq,
favorable impressions of the United States plummeted from
61% to 15%. Even though it has been a victim
of Muslim terrorists, Indonesians largely see the "war
on terror" as a war on Islam, and the Bush administration's policies
in the Middle East, featuring unwavering support
for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and opposition to
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, as well as the occupation
of Iraq, are red meat for radical Islam and push Muslim
reformers toward anti-Americanism.
Despite Indonesia's strategic and symbolic importance, the
Bush administration hasn't made Indonesia a priority.
The country's 220 million people in need of economic
and political help are likely to continue to take a
back seat to Thailand and its Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra, with his free-market rhetoric and
authoritarian streak, as well as Singapore and even
Malaysia, among US favorites in the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations group.
The second
Bush term may feature a larger role for Paul Wolfowitz,
the current deputy secretary of defense. Wolfowitz was
a respected ambassador to Indonesia in the 1980s,
though that may have had to do with his then-wife, a student
of Javanese culture. Despite its lip service to
building bridges to the Islamic world and the vital
plank Indonesia could play in it, Wolfowitz has never
traveled to Indonesia as an emissary of goodwill. In fact,
he's one of the architects of the Iraq invasion that
has destroyed US standing in Indonesia. The
Bush administration's neglect of the past four years
could wind up looking good compared with the four years ahead.
Gary LaMoshi, a longtime editor of
investor rights advocate eRaider.com, has also
contributed to Slate and Salon.com. He has worked as a
broadcast producer and as a print writer and editor in
the United States and Asia. He moved to Hong Kong in
1995 and now splits his time between there and
Indonesia.
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