2001: A year of new beginnings for Indonesia-U.S. relations

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The past 12 months marked a year of new beginnings in ties between Jakarta and Washington.

Both countries saw new leaders emerging, both through rather arduous circumstances.

But it was events immediately beyond both Megawati Soekarnoputri and George W. Bush's control that would have the greatest impact and most long term effect on the bilateral relationship.

Like other parts of the world, the shape of ties would immediately be influenced by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

As the year began there was genuine belief that ties, which had gone through rocky patches the past two years, was rebounding upwards with the swearing in of President George W.Bush as American president.

But relations, albeit far from cold remained cool, as Washington rightly kept a distance from the increasingly erratic administration of Abdurrahman Wahid.

The ascendance of Megawati brought a new wind of excitement to the relationship.

The significance of the ties gained almost unprecedented stature as Megawati became the second leader, the first Muslim and the first non-Western, to personally meet with Bush in the wake of the Sept. 11 attack.

As president of the most populous Muslim country in the world, Washington definitely saw the benefits of having Megawati's favor in their impending crusade against terrorism.

The Indonesian President received an honorable reception in Washington with the Bush administration according token pledges of aid to smoothen the regained trust between the two.

The visit to the U.S. also showed that Megawati's administration foreign policy priorities were set straight with Washington and Tokyo being the primary destinations after the fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations.

But soon as events in Afghanistan unfolded Megawati's administration seemed caught in two minds.

While the Indonesian foreign ministry choose to respond in a carefully worded statement of concern surrounding the developments in Afghanistan, Megawati herself caught many of her foreign policy aides of guards by firing a broadside at the U.S. raid in Afghanistan.

It should also be noted that Megawati may have also been forced to show stronger sympathy to the plight of the Afghanistan people, due to the strong Muslim sentiments here.

This apparent backtracking reportedly annoyed Washington , and some claim that it culminated in Bush neglecting to officially meet Megawati in private during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shanghai in October.

This did not get any better as small but vocal anti-American sentiment here caused a public relations headache for the government.

The situation has not been helped by the fact that the U.S. government for an extended period maintained its travel warning on Indonesia, not to mention that an Indonesian is being tried for allegedly helping one the Sept. 11 terrorists enter the U.S.

One positive point that must be noted however, is that the role of new U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, Ralph Boyce, has helped cool whatever tensions which might be simmering.

Different to his predecessor, Boyce has so far shown prudence in his new posting and help raise the promise of ties.

Soon after his appointment, Boyce immediately said that the U.S. understands the Indonesia's stance on Afghanistan issue and it is normal for "long time friends" to have different of opinion in certain things.

Now that the Afghanistan war is slowing moving out of the way, the ever changing nature of the bilateral ties look to once again show signs of renewed closeness.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda once said that Jakarta and Washington had always enjoyed a long and friendly relationships, and will more likely than not stay that way.

"So the term 'cool' to describe the relations between the two countries is not the proper one," he confidently remarked.