Govt congratulates Bush, expects stronger ties

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and M. Taufiqurrahman The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The government congratulated President George W. Bush on Thursday over his reelection and expressed a hope for stronger ties with the world's only superpower country.

"The government of Indonesia congratulates President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney on their re-election and wish them success in their second term in dealing with the various challenges facing both the United States and the world," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

The statement said multidimensional and productive relations between the two countries should be strengthened in the interests of both the U.S. and Indonesian people.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono himself is expected to give Bush a call on Friday to congratulate him on his second term in the White House.

Analysts, however, doubted on Thursday whether Bush's reelection would bring about any change in bilateral ties between Indonesia and the United States.

Bantarto Bandoro of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said that the support for Bush in Tuesday's election indicated that the incumbent won the approval of U.S. citizens to continue his war on terrorism.

"The Bush administration will continue to pursue the war on terrorism and Indonesia will therefore be affected by this," Bantarto told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview.

He said terrorism would remain a global threat and cooperation between individual countries would be indispensable to ward off the menace.

"Cooperation in the fight against terrorism will bring Indonesia, the U.S. and Australia closer together," he said.

However, Bantarto said that the war on terror would receive wider support if the Bush administration took a more benign approach in its implementation.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar of the Indonesian Institute for Sciences (LIPI) said that the government could not expect a speedy resumption of the military relationship between the two countries. The U.S. imposed a military embargo on the Indonesian Military (TNI), following widespread allegations that gross human rights abuses had taken place after East Timor separated from Indonesia in 1999.

"The problem does not lie with the Bush administration, but with the U.S. Congress, which wants to maintain the embargo. In fact, President Bush wanted to resume the military ties early in his first administration," she told the Post.

When asked about the growing resistance from radical groups that resent the Bush antiterror drive, which they perceive as targeting Muslims around the world, Dewi said: "It depends on whether the Indonesian government manages to dispel the suspicion that it merely bows down to U.S. interests."

She also said that such resistance would not materialize if the Bush administration pursued its antiterror drive prudently.