Domestic vs world opinion

The U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan have put the government of President Megawati Soekarnoputri in a bind. It has to thread carefully between majority international opinion, which supports the attacks, and domestic public opinion, which ranges from outright condemnation to tacit support.

Whatever position it takes, it must ultimately be dictated by national interests. Indonesia cannot ignore the majority world opinion, nor can the government dismiss domestic public opinion.

Right now, the government seems to have taken a severe beating from both sides. At home, it has been criticized for shying away from condemning the attacks. Abroad, America is irritated at Jakarta's wavering support for its campaign against terrorism, of which the attacks on Afghanistan are an important part.

The official response, as outlined on Oct. 8, has been measured and proportionate. Couched in diplomatic language, it said that Indonesia was deeply concerned at the attacks and insisted that any global war on terrorism must be taken collectively under UN leadership. This was the strongest Indonesia could have gone in criticizing the United States. While it acknowledges the right of America to respond to the terrorist attacks on its soil, it cautioned Washington about the potential casualties among civilian Afghans.

As rational and pragmatic as the response sounds, the government never consulted the House of Representatives beforehand. Not surprisingly, it failed to secure domestic public support. Instead, this gave room for the small but vocal and hardline groups to steal the show and to virtually dictate the national political agenda these past two weeks with their provocative statements, such as a demand for ties with the United States to be severed.

Later on, President Megawati's Oct. 15 statement, that no nation had the right to attack another, or to seek to erase blood with blood, was widely misinterpreted as succumbing to public pressure. She may have been stating a widely accepted principle guiding international relations, but many people were quick to perceive this as a veiled attack on the United States.

This whole episode suggests that the government has failed miserably in the art of political communication. Domestic and international public opinion need not have collided had the government prepared its case better, and fully informed the public of its policies and their rationale.

For an issue as big as this, President Megawati should have consulted the House of Representatives' leadership before, and not after, announcing the government's response. And for an issue as big as this, President Megawati should have personally taken charge of the situation, instead of leaving the matter entirely in the hands of her lieutenants.