Even Palestine approves of our contacts with Israel
Kornelius Purba, The Jakarta Post, New York
The meeting between Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda and Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom on the sidelines of the 2005 World Summit, may well be received negatively by Muslim-based political parties, such as the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and other Muslim organizations, for the same old reasons.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono himself has a strong and pragmatic rationale in taking the new initiative and it is Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas himself who has asked him to play the interlocutor role.
The President initially planned to visit Palestine and tour some other Middle East countries on his way home after attending the summit in New York, and the two ministers' meeting was a part of the mission to Palestine to get security assurances from Israel during the visit to Ramallah. Unfortunately the plan was postponed due to domestic problems.
The decision to open contact with Israel is the President's first major diplomatic move, apart from hosting the 50th Asian- African commemorative summit last April. This is the beginning of an ambitious but attainable mission, although it could well backfire if not executed cautiously.
Palestine is an emotional issue for many Indonesians and for Muslims all over the world. For some Muslims, any kind of relationship with Israel is unimaginable and is even regarded as 'haram' because of Israel's ruthlessness in suppressing their Palestine brothers and sisters, the majority of them Muslims. Only after Palestine achieves its full independence can Indonesia establish relations with Israel. Many Indonesians do not realize that several Arab countries also maintain trade and diplomatic relations with Israel.
In the meantime, there are also Indonesian groups who may question the urgency and benefit of the President's plan in taking a mediator role in the Middle East because our domestic affairs are clearly much more pressing. Palestinian problems have persisted for several decades with no sign of solution. Even Arab countries and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) cannot do much.
But how can Indonesia help Palestine without having any contact with Israel? There is no way we can mediate between two conflicting or warring parties when we do not have relations and, more importantly, the trust of both sides.
In fact, Susilo is not the country's first president to have initiated contacts with Israel. In 1993, then president Soeharto received then Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin at his private residence.
Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, who had close contacts with Israeli leaders in his capacity as leader of the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), also had ambitious plans during his nearly-two year rule until July 2001. He had wanted to establish official ties with Israel.
Western countries like the United States have strongly backed Indonesia's plans -- as explicitly expressed by British PM Tony Blair to President Susilo in New York -- because they realize that growing terrorism in predominantly Muslim nations is partly triggered by the Palestinian tragedy. Israel has strategic interests in having good relations with Indonesia and one of its ministers has told Minister Hassan that they were ready to accept any role Indonesia wants to play in the Palestine issue.
But Indonesia must also be realistic because it can only play a limited role because of the delicacy of the problems. Indonesia's status as the world's third largest democracy after India and the U.S., and as the world's largest predominantly Muslim nation, and a moderate one at that, is a much-sought after capacity now. Susilo himself is the first directly elected president in the Muslim world.
But how, at the end of the day, can diplomacy improve the welfare of the people? How can playing such a role boost our exports? Indonesia played a very decisive role in ending the Cambodian civil war in the early 1990s along with other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Singapore and Malaysia were very outspoken in attacking the Vietnam-backed regime of Hun Sen at that time. But what happened?
Later, as acknowledged by former foreign minister Ali Alatas, Indonesia found that Singapore and Malaysia had been very aggressive in their investments while at the same time attacking Hun Sen in public. Indonesia only got the glory, but the money went to the neighbors.
In the war against terrorism Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf seemed smarter than our leaders in obtaining economic benefits from Western countries. A few weeks ago Musharraf also sent his foreign minister to meet with the Israeli foreign minister.
The writer can be reached at purba@thejakartapost.com