Defense pact<\/p>\n
Nobody can blame the Defense Minister, Moch. Mahfud MD, for
\nlacking imagination in his honest effort to build up a defense
\nmechanism around this archipelagic republic. His proposal to set
\nup a new intelligence ring around his ministry and around the
\npresidency shows his creative mind, but the idea has been
\nrejected outright by those more experienced in the military and
\ncivil intelligence work as being unnecessary and energy wasting.
\nIf he wants to please the President, who would get a daily
\nintelligence report under the scheme, maybe he is on the right
\ntrack.<\/p>\n
To counter the rumored threat of an embargo imposed by the
\nUnited States on Indonesia in case of a conflict, the minister
\nthinks inviting some Asian powers to form a defense pact might be
\nthe answer to scare U.S. intervening, through its ambassador, in
\nIndonesia's internal affairs. And in the minister's mind, of
\ncourse, this is to keep U.S. submarines and aircraft carriers
\nalso at bay. (What about its intercontinental ballistic
\nmissiles?)<\/p>\n
Original though such a proposal may sound, it also shows the
\ninexperience, if not naivety, of the minister in international
\npolitics since the Asian African Conference in Bandung in 1955,
\nIndonesia's greatest asset in international politics, has been
\nits neutrality in the form of the principle of non alignment. In
\nthat spirit, forming a military pact is tantamount to inviting
\nthe devil to stage a war.<\/p>\n
The success of Indonesia's foreign policy has been based on
\nthe strength of morality, on containment of the enemy and not
\nconfronting it, unless you are sure you're fighting a little ant
\nand not a giant King Kong. Speaker of the House, Akbar Tandjung,
\ndoes not see any foreign military threat at present. Foreign
\nminister Alwi Shihab believes military pacts are no longer
\nrelevant when the cold war is a thing of the past.<\/p>\n
Columnist Gwynne Dyer wrote in The Jakarta Post, Oct. 26, a
\nchallenging, if not misinformed, article about West Papua. He
\nasks defiantly whether it will one day become the next East Timor
\nfor Indonesia? If I am correct, he blames violence in that
\nterritory to the Indonesia military and security agents (provoked
\nby foreign spies?). I think this is a nice opportunity for
\nminister Mahfud to start a counter-attack with his pen without
\nresorting to a defense pact.<\/p>\n
GANDHI SUKARDI<\/p>\n
Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/defense-pact-1447899208", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }