JP\/3\/Analysis<\/p>\n
Paul Wolfowitz: A friend of Indonesia<\/p>\n
Jusuf Wanandi
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
I met Paul Wolfowitz for the first time when he was head of
\nPolicy Planning at the State Department, and then again as
\nAssistant Secretary for East Asia and the Pacific in the early
\n80's. We became close friends when he was ambassador in Jakarta
\nfrom 1986 to 1989. He remains a friend of Indonesia, although he
\nhas not had the opportunity to visit Indonesia many times since
\nhe left Indonesia and joined the government. He was one of the
\nbest U.S. ambassadors in Indonesia since I have been following
\nU.S. affairs when Marshall Green was ambassador in 1965.<\/p>\n
Not only was he an official representative of the U.S.
\nPresident, dealing with the Indonesian government and
\nbureaucracy, but he was also actively engaged with Indonesian
\nsociety. Everything he did was full of enthusiasm. He has shown
\nhis empathy for the Indonesian people and its diversity in his
\ndealing with many groups in society. He showed his empathy to the
\nIndonesian people when, at his farewell address, he mentioned the
\nneed for flexibility and openness in the Indonesian political
\nsystem under president Soeharto.<\/p>\n
This has created strong reactions among the elite and the
\nIndonesian government particularly. He was one of the few Western
\nambassadors who kept a close relationship with Muslim groups and
\nwas the first Western ambassador ever to have been invited to
\ngive a lecture at Muhammadiyah University in Jakarta. He was
\ndelighted to learn about their progressive ideas and
\ninterpretation of Islamic teachings.<\/p>\n
He was especially close to Abdurrahman Wahid, former
\nNahdlatul Ulama chairman, and Nurcholish Madjid, president of
\nParamadina University, two stalwarts for Islamic reforms and
\nmodernization. He always made the time to meet them in Washington
\nD.C. during his busy schedule as deputy secretary of Department
\nof Defense.<\/p>\n
After he left and joined the Bush Sr. Administration in 1989,
\nhe still kept contact with Indonesia and Indonesians everywhere.
\nWhen he was dean of SAIS at Johns Hopkins University during the
\nClinton Administration he was a regular visitor to Indonesia,
\nespecially in the transition period when Soeharto stepped down in
\n1988.<\/p>\n
He also headed USINDO (US-Indonesia Society) as chair of the
\nboard until he became deputy secretary of defense. He received
\nmany guests from Indonesia, although he was busy as Deputy
\nSecretary, especially after Sept. 11, 2001. He publicly exposed
\nhis admiration for both Turkish and Indonesian Islam, which have
\nbeen generally compatible with modernization and democracy. He
\nstated this, among other things, at an important speech he gave
\nat the Brookings Institute in 2002. He has helped President
\nMegawati, when she was struggling to get her act together after
\nSept. 11, and asked for patience from his colleagues in the U.S.
\nAdministration.<\/p>\n
He was definitely behind the quick response from the U.S.
\nforces to the tsunami disaster in Aceh. When he visited Jakarta
\nafter his trip to Aceh in February, a lot of his old friends met
\nhim and had an open exchange with him. They were more bewildered
\nby Paul's ideas on Iraq and the Middle East than negatively
\ncritical of him. He answered them quite openly and admitted some
\nof the mistakes made at the beginning of the post-war nation
\nbuilding in Iraq because of misinformation about the expected
\nproblems that followed a war that was very short.<\/p>\n
The U.S. was more prepared for refugees and hunger than on the
\nsecurity problems they would face. It could be argued that many
\nIndonesian Muslims are against his policies, especially towards
\nIraq. But they would like to hear from him themselves. He did
\nplan to come to Jakarta in early December 2003 for a conference,
\nbut had to cancel it because his boss Secretary Rumsfeld went to
\nAfghanistan and Iraq. He would have met a lot of Muslim leaders
\norganized by Muhammadiyah to hear from him about U.S. policies to
\nhave a debate with them.<\/p>\n
Will he be good for Indonesia as the World Bank president? For
\nsure, he is a person that has great empathy towards a developing
\nMuslim country that is trying hard to make democracy work and
\nwould like to modernize the country by efforts to alleviate
\npoverty, educate the people and keep them healthy.<\/p>\n
We might argue about his methods to achieve democracy in the
\nMiddle East, especially Iraq, but he has the right idea that
\nchange has to happen in that region towards modernization,
\ndemocracy and economic development. With the elections in
\nAfghanistan, Iraq and Palestine, a start has been made, but the
\noutcome is still a question mark. So many things still have to
\nfall in place, and they need luck in the future to secure
\nsustained freedom and democracy, peace and modernization. This
\nhas already started and let us hope that real progress will
\nhappen in those places.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Paul's shortcoming was that he was not listening
\nenough to a wide range of expertise that could make his
\napproaches to achieve his goals more acceptable. He can do that
\nnow as head of the most important international finance
\ninstitution to lay down the foundation for modernization,
\ndevelopment and progress in the developing world.<\/p>\n
The author is Co-founder, Member, Board of Trustees and Senior
\nFellow of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies
\n(CSIS) in Jakarta.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/jp3analysis-1447899208",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}