Asia Times: Relieved Southeast Asia welcomes Wahid



	November 6, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Relieved Southeast Asia welcomes Wahid
By Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE - Indonesia's neighbors are heaving a sigh of relief at the new Indonesian government, whose President Abdurrahman Wahid leaves Saturday on a whistle-stop tour of the region.

During a visit to Brunei last week, Singapore's Foreign Minister S Jayakumar said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) should welcome Wahid and Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri, because their coalition government has defused a situation potentially threatening to the stability of Southeast Asia.

Jayakumar added that there are two key areas the new Indonesian leadership must tackle: restoring confidence among global investors and strengthening an increasingly fragile unity among the provinces that makes up the republic.

Keen to reach out to Indonesia's neighbors, Wahid is going on a five-day tour of all Asean members that marks his first overseas trip since becoming president on October 20.

During his brief visit to Singapore on Saturday, he will address about 300 local and foreign businessmen at a luncheon meeting. ''We expect Singapore to open the gate and enter Indonesia again, and so spur other rich nations to have confidence in us too,'' Indonesia's ambassador to Singapore, Luhut Panjaitan, told the Straits Times. ''Singapore is a barometer for other countries. If it has the courage to invest in Indonesia, then others will too. So, we have to first convince Singaporeans that there is a good atmosphere welcoming their investments.''

Jayakumar's comments tend to reflect the views of political leaders and commentators in the region, who have widely welcomed the Wahid government, his diverse cabinet and his moves toward democratization. ''For the first time in Indonesian history, the people had a say in the elections,'' noted Malaysia's New Straits Times in a recent editorial, adding that the biggest challenge facing the new president is to instil confidence in the people, including businessmen. ''Perceptions of the people often help in driving the economy,'' the editorial said.

Indonesia's neighbors are probably most keen to see some semblance of stability return to the country, wracked by violence in the provinces and political uncertainty amid a cripping economic crisis since Suharto quit in May 1998. ''An Indonesia torn by political infighting will not benefit its people nor its neighbors,'' observed Thailand's Business Day in an editorial. ''A president able to reach out to all sides without alienating any single group will be absolutely crucial in this endeavor.''

Already, Wahid has named several firsts in his cabinet - the first cabinet members from restless Irian Jaya and Aceh provinces as well as a Chinese Indonesian in charge of economic policy. Singapore's Straits Times hailed the appointment of Marzuki Darusman - a key reformer in Suharto's Golkar Party and a human rights commissioner - as the country's new attorney-general. This will help to restore public confidence in the country's judicial system, it added.

Wahid's wish to promote closer ties with Asian countries, especially Asean members, China and India, has predictably been well received in the region. ''With the new government in place, Indonesia has a far better chance now to make good than it had at any other time during the tumultous 17 months after the fall of former president Suharto in May last year,'' the Straits Times said, adding ''Gus Dur (as Wahid is known) must not squander his chance.''

The Wahid government's foreign policy will also be keenly watched, not least during an informal Asean summit to be held in Manila in late November.

Indonesia has traditionally been the heavyweight country in Asean, given its size and diplomatic influence as a voice for the developing world, but its role as such diminished as the country became caught up in internal strife. ''Now that Indonesia has become a full democracy with an elected parliament and a president, it remains to be seen how Indonesia will conduct itself within Asean. Will the most populous Asean member give added support to the concept of open society and democracy or choose a low profile?'' asked Thailand's Nation nespaper.

Looking back, Malaysian political analyst Mazian Nordin argues that one of the main lessons to be learnt from the outcome of the Indonesian elections of October 20 is the fact that political problems cannot be solved by mathematics alone or through opinion polls.

He points out that Gus Dur won the presidency because under the current circumstances in Indonesia, where national reconciliation and stability matter the most, he enjoyed much greater acceptability and much less resistance. ''His elevation as a national leader was considered crucial in view of the danger of disintegration at this juncture of the country's history,'' Nordin noted.

Singapore in particular will be looking to patch up strained ties with Indonesia after the Suharto era. Under former President B J Habibie, who took over from Suharto, bilateral ties were cooled by Jakarta's perceptions that Singapore had not helped Indonesia enough when the economic crisis struck. Habibie had also described Singapore as a ''little red dot'' and accused the island republic of racism against the Malay community.

The previous Indonesian government accused Chinese Indonesian businessmen of taking their money overseas and parking most of it in Singapore - another sour point between the two neighbors during Habibie's tenure.

Wahid's visit to Singapore, and his appointment of Indonesian Chinese Kwik Kian Gie as economics czar, may do much to ease the fears of ethnic Chinese Indonesians as well.

Wahid is a close friend of both Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and President S R Nathan, who often invited him to speak at seminars by the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, which Nathan used to head. Lee described the Indonesian cabinet as the ''best team possible in the circumstances'', adding that it has a ''fair chance of success''.

''It shows clearly that the president and the vice-president are on the national reconciliation and reconstruction path,'' observed Lee.

(Inter Press Service)

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©1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.