Curbing Indonesia's army

Curbing Indonesia's army

The scale of the tsunami disaster and continuing health risks in Indonesia's Aceh Province are almost beyond comprehension.

Unfortunately, Indonesia's politically powerful army is not used to putting humanitarianism first. Imbued with a reflexively nationalist ideology and obsessed with a counterinsurgency campaign against armed Aceh separatist groups, army leaders persuaded government officials to restrict foreign aid workers to the province's two main cities.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general himself, needs to make sure his generals understand that they are accountable to him as the democratically elected leader and that the human needs of Aceh's people must be Indonesia's most compelling concern. Until that change is internalized, there can be no dropping of America's limits on military ties with Indonesia. Those limits were imposed because of past human rights violations by the Indonesian armed forces.

In September, Yudhoyono became the first Indonesian leader to be democratically elected by a direct popular vote, an event that many hailed as the start of a new era of more responsive government.

Those hopes now face a critical test. This is the moment for Yudhoyono to take full charge and insist that the needs of Aceh's people come first. -- The New York Times

Start compensation process

It is anyone's guess how much it will cost to compensate Korean victims of Japan's colonial rule in 1910-45 for their sufferings.

First of all, it is difficult to determine how many victims are eligible for compensation. During negotiations with Japan, which led to the 1965 signing of an agreement on normalizing relations, Korea put the figure at 1,032,864. But estimates by academicians go up to 4 million people.

The Korean government will have to foot the entire bill because, as recently declassified documents show, it mistakenly renounced individual claims to the Japanese government in return for US$300 million in grants, $200 million in soft loans and another $300 million in commercial loans.

To spend tens of trillions of won will put an enormous financial strain on the Korean government, given its 2005 main budget of 131 trillion won. But this should not keep it from launching the process of making compensation payments soon. -- The Korea Herald, Seoul

Tsunami disaster is a chance to create anew

The tsunami has opened the floodgates of charity worldwide. Billions of dollars are being pledged in response to calls for help in relief and rehabilitation work.

That's why we need to take the cue from the way cities and countries have restructured successfully both their economy and towns post-disaster, springing back to life with renewed vim and vigor. The Great Fire of 1666 that raged for five days burned the City of London to the ground.

Post-disaster, London made the transition from a haphazard, unsafe city to a well-planned, brick and mortar model.

After the World Wars, the Marshall Plan enabled a bombed-out Europe to make a fresh start. Countries went in for structured makeovers in town and economic planning.

Rehabilitation implies restoring the status quo ante. We can use this opportunity to do much better than that: We can create anew. -- The Times of India

Aid mission a test of integrated command

The government has sent about 1,000 Self-Defense Forces troops on a mission to aid victims of the powerful earthquake that occurred in waters off Sumatra, Indonesia, and the enormous ensuing tsunami. Japan has never sent so many SDF members overseas before. The recent dispatch shows that we have expanded the scope of the SDF's role in the international community.

The latest SDF mission was the fifth of its kind to be carried out under the Japan Disaster Relief Team Law. The mission should be regarded as epochal in many respects.

First, the scale of dispatch has never been greater. Second, the mission was part of an international cooperative effort made by many countries. Third, the Ground, Maritime and Air Self- Defense forces joined to form two groups that were sent on the mission.

The government intends to revise the Self-Defense Forces Law with the aim of expanding the list of SDF missions to include international peacekeeping activities. If the SDF can successfully carry out their mission in the stricken areas, the public will be more apt to recognize the necessity of revising the law, which could expedite achieving that goal. -- The Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo

New term, old agenda for Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush will officially start his second term as U.S. president after being sworn in at noon on Capitol Hill. Fresh from a narrow election victory that he said had absolved him of accountability for the Iraq war and given him new political capital to spend on his conservative agenda, Bush will now go before America and the world to outline his goals for his upcoming term in his inauguration speech.

Given that his approval rating -- in the high 40s -- is the lowest for any re-elected president starting a new term in more than 50 years, that he is confronted with deep fiscal and trade deficits, a weak job market, the Iraq mess and mistrust abroad, many are hoping Bush Jr will use the speech to send a more conciliatory tone to the world.

But that is unlikely to happen. Bush promised to "show purpose without arrogance" in his first inaugural speech but found it didn't play well with his core political supporters.

Yet in many ways Washington doesn't have much choice but to be more yielding. It needs help from the international community to restore peace in Iraq, for the sake of its economy it needs to avoid creating too much friction with China over trade, and it needs help from Asia in dealing with North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

The international system through the United Nations similarly tries to ensure the world doesn't fall victim to the law of the jungle. Bush needs support to get things done. To continue in his uncompromising and unilateral way, either at home or on the global stage is simply too dangerous. -- The Nation, Bangkok