Vajpayee's RI visit gives new direction<\/p>\n
By Mehru Jaffer<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is scheduled
\nto arrive here this morning bringing with him greetings from one
\nbillion Indians, over 120 million of whom are Muslims. India has
\nbeen home to Muslims for over a thousand years making them the
\nlargest minority community in the world.<\/p>\n
On the eve of his departure, the Indian prime minister
\nexplained that he was visiting Indonesia to continue the process
\nof dialog initiated by President Abdurrahman Wahid who was in New
\nDelhi last February.<\/p>\n
The two heads of state who have much in common, including the
\nchallenge they face as leaders of coalition governments and their
\neffort to contain the discontent of religious groups in their
\nrespective countries, will resume talks here before Vajpayee
\nleaves two days later for Bali.<\/p>\n
Despite their different religious beliefs, both Abdurrahman
\nand Vajpayee are committed to a diverse, multi-religious and
\nmulti-linguistic society. Apart from countless others, one of
\nVajpayee's main concerns is the growing trend of intolerance
\nwithin India and in the world in general.<\/p>\n
"Mutual tolerance and understanding leads to goodwill and
\ncooperation... Secularism is not an alien concept imported out of
\ncompulsion after Independence. Rather it is an integral and
\nnatural feature of our national culture and ethos," he said.<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman who had the red carpet rolled out for him in New
\nDelhi and whose visit was hailed as a diplomatic event of the
\nhighest significance by the Indian media, could not agree more
\nwith this sentiment expressed recently by Vajpayee in a new year
\nmessage. Abdurrahman himself believes that multi-religious
\nsocieties must stick to a non-sectarian national agenda.<\/p>\n
Both countries agree that if Indonesia, India and China are
\nable to work together, they will be strengthening not just each
\nother but also creating a multipolar world as opposed to the
\nunipolar one we live in today. The thought that the USA is the
\nonly superpower left in our midst is a frightening thought to
\nmany on this planet.<\/p>\n
"The relationship between Indonesia and India dates back two
\nthousand years. The present visit of the Indian prime minister is
\nto give new direction to an old friendship and to see how it can
\nbe utilized in this day and age for the mutual benefit of the
\npeople of both countries," Muthu Venkatraman, Indian envoy told
\nThe Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
The prime minister travels with a high level delegation of
\nsenior officials from the ministry of agriculture, commerce,
\nscience and technology and a group of businessmen who are
\nexpected to sign several memoranda of understanding (MOUs) while
\nhere.<\/p>\n
However, the trip is seen mostly as an effort at this stage to
\nrevive the civilizational and cultural links between the two
\nAsian giants.<\/p>\n
"Here culture is not defined just as song and dance but the
\nact of reaching out to people, meeting them in the hope of
\nunderstanding them better before striking up a deeper
\nfriendship," Venkatraman said.<\/p>\n
The fact is that ever since the Cold War ended India has
\nlooked for a more meaningful relationship with the countries of
\nSoutheast Asia. New Delhi's "Look East" foreign policy was
\nformulated in 1991 when it asked to be a sectoral dialogue
\npartner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and
\nthen a full dialog partner in 1995.<\/p>\n
After its participation in the Afro-Asian movement in the
\n1950s, India went missing in this region.<\/p>\n
It was the defeat in 1962 in the war with China, preoccupation
\nwith wars with Pakistan over India's northernmost province of
\nJammu and Kashmir, estrangement with the USA and closeness to
\nMoscow throughout the Cold War period that isolated India from
\nthe rest of Asia. After the death of Sukarno, an old friend, the
\nrelationship between Indonesia and India further lost its spark.<\/p>\n
Besides, the country's stubborn insistence on an inward
\nlooking economy for over four decades made it economically
\nirrelevant to the emerging tigers of Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
It took the twin shocks of the collapse of Soviet Russia and
\nthe terrible state of its own economy in early 1990 to shake
\nIndia out of its South Asian ghetto, to open its eyes to the
\n"Look East" policy and to rekindle the desire to awaken ancient
\nbonds, especially with countries similar to itself like
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
After the democratization of Jakarta, it seemed the right time
\nto work together for a larger market configuration for making not
\njust each country strong but also Asia as a whole.<\/p>\n
Already India does more trade with Indonesia than with
\nneighboring Pakistan, and with Singapore than with Bangladesh.
\nAfter the USA and Europe, it is the countries of ASEAN that are
\nIndia's major economic partners, particularly Indonesia where
\njust agro-based exports to India total US$1.6 billion.<\/p>\n
India needs natural gas from Indonesia and hopes to have it
\nshipped from Aceh in northern Sumatra that is only 90 nautical
\nmiles away from India's Andaman islands.<\/p>\n
Indonesia hopes to benefit from the transfer of scientific
\nknow-how, and information technology.<\/p>\n
A bilateral partnership is also seen as a broader front to
\nward off unnecessary western pressures often on human rights,
\ndemocracy or trade issues. Besides India needs to point out to
\nChina all the friends it has in the region and as the home of
\nmillions of Muslims it could do with an ally or two in the
\nOrganization of Islamic Countries (OIC) as well.<\/p>\n
Vajpayee also encourages the overseas Indian community to
\nstrengthen the emotional, cultural and spiritual bonds to the
\ncountry of their origin seeking the help of the Indian diaspora
\nto make India a knowledge superpower by 2010. Keeping this in
\nmind Abdurrahman had traveled to India with over 70 businessmen
\nas part of his entourage and some of them were of Indian origin.<\/p>\n
"And what better time than now to strengthen all bilateral
\nrelations in Asia while the Bush administration is still busy
\nsettling down in Washington," points out Saeed Naqvi, television
\njournalist and foreign affairs expert to The Jakarta Post over
\ntelephone from New Delhi.<\/p>\n
The writer is a Jakarta-based Indian journalist.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/vajpayees-ri-visit-gives-new-direction-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }