Common stand needed to fight terrorism

Few would envy having to start an ambassadorship besieged by vociferous protests and a dramatically altered geopolitical climate. Entering the first few weeks of his posting here, U.S. Ambassador Ralph "Skip" Boyce spoke to The Jakarta Post on the prospect of bilateral ties under the backdrop of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

Question: You arrived here during a time of rising anti-American sentiment because of events in Afghanistan. What do you think is the most challenging aspect of your task here?

Answer: Let me first say that I don't like to use the term anti- American because to me that implies a lack of understanding of individual countries that have their own views based on their own situations.

Just because it doesn't happen to be exactly the same as our view does not necessarily mean it's taken for anti-American reasons. I don't like to use that word.

But you're right, I arrived when there were daily demonstrations going on outside (the U.S. Embassy). By the time I got here the police had very capably come up with a variety of means to protect the embassy.

I was very impressed and had a chance to tell the Jakarta Police chief that early in the first few days I was here.

He came down and I went down to the motor pool and I personally thanked him. That was probably my first encounter with an Indonesian official.

So things got better after that. Now we don't have the daily crowds coming by. I wouldn't say it's a totally relaxed situation but to me it has improved dramatically.

But again I want to stress that I don't see a disagreement between friends as being anti-American.

Q: But you have to admit that while the relationship is good, it has not been as good as say the pre-1999 days?

A: The way I see it Indonesia has been going through a very challenging period, and that's been going on since 1998 and even 1997.

The idea that a country the size of Indonesia would be undertaking a massive political and social exercise in the middle of a huge regional economic crisis is pretty daunting for any country to imagine.

From my point of view, and I've been handling Indonesia from Washington, I have a very healthy respect for these challenges and the way Indonesia has responded.

The underlying relationship I think is very sound and the respect we have for each other goes back a long, long way. That's what we have to build on.

Q: Are you satisfied or disappointed with the Indonesian government's response to the campaign against terrorism?

A: On the campaign against terrorism, I have no doubt that the United States and Indonesia are completely in sync!

The Indonesian government has made it clear from the beginning that they found the events of that day deplorable. I think the President came out with a very strong statement.

And that is what I would categorize as the "why" are we in this campaign; that is, to stop international terrorism.

The place where we seem to be parting paths a little bit is on the "how".

I think that rather than expecting the statements coming out of Jakarta to be nonstop tributes to the way the United States has chosen to go about the Afghanistan campaign, I think that we have to have a healthy respect for and an understanding of the climate here in Indonesia.

We should realize this isn't an ideal world, this is the real world.

So I don't think I would use the word satisfied or disappointed.

I think it is objective and realistic.

Q: There seems to be a view that the United States is anti-Islam?

A: I completely reject it!

Let's stop and look at the record: The United States is the largest Muslim country in the western hemisphere if you look at the population in the U.S. who are following the Islamic religion.

We're very proud of the fact that we have room for all shapes and sizes, including religion.

Q: Going back to your job here in Jakarta, what are your foremost priorities as you begin your posting here?

A: Clearly the safety of the employees of the embassy, both American and Indonesian, are our highest priorities and Secretary (of State Colin) Powell made that clear to me when I left and I take that absolutely seriously.

Similarly, the safety of American citizens throughout Indonesia is something that we have to pay very close attention to.

The events of Sept. 11 changed the world and subsequently changed the nature of my assignment.

Let me restate for you the overall U.S. goals in Indonesia:

First, we want to work as hard as we can to preserve the territorial integrity of this country.

I want to make it absolutely clear that the United States does not support any of the separatist movements in this country. We want to keep Indonesia whole.

Second, we want to see what we can do as friends of Indonesia to support the effort of the Indonesian people to remake their society.

We are working very closely with the donor community and the government of Indonesia to see that our efforts are targeted in the right direction.

Beyond that the United States wants to find an appropriate way to have a relationship with the Indonesian Military (TNI) that is to both sides' interest.

We recognize that the TNI is an important institution here. We've had some problems in the past. I don't think anyone is proposing going back to the way things were before Sept. 1999, but given the new challenges in the world at large and given the hope that we have that we can work closely with Indonesia, we want to find appropriate ways to engage the TNI.

Q: Indonesia has often been mentioned as an emerging democracy. In what way can the U.S., given its long history and its known role of upholding democracy, specifically help Indonesia in this area?

A: If you look at the commonalities in our geography, history and societal makeup, it's actually quite striking.

The distance between Banda Aceh in the west to Irian Jaya in the east, is roughly the same distance from San Francisco to New York.

The size of the population is approximately the same.

The diversity and the number of diverse ethnic makeup, is similar.

So we've got our own experience in trying to carve a democracy out of, in our case 220 years of grappling with the expansion of the territory and then incorporating the new areas, etc.

We are still debating today in the United States the proper role between the federal government and the state and local governments.

And so Indonesia is just starting out on a path like that, and you know it's going to take awhile.

There are going to be mistakes and there are going to be successes, but I suspect that 220 years from now Indonesia will still be grappling with this basic issue of governance -- the center versus the periphery.

So we've got some experience we can bring to bear on that. We've got some experience with having a military that has civilian control, that's transparent in its operations and professional in every way.

I'm not suggesting we have all the answers, but I think we have some experience to bring to bear.

Q: You sound optimistic about ties between the two countries, but at the same time there is a travel advisory in place and the evacuation of nonessential U.S. personnel and their dependents. How do you reconcile these contradictory positions?

A: My first priority is the safety of the employees of the embassy and, of course, Americans in Indonesia as a whole.

My guidance from Washington when I came out here was to err on the side of caution.

I am aware of the concerns of the travel advisory. It was a voluntary departure incidentally and we hope to have our people back as soon as possible.

But in the coming weeks there are a few signposts and periods we will want to go through before we see where the world as a whole is going with this rapidly changing situation.