Indonesia makes bid to balance Western domination

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia intends to forge a strong strategic political partnership with China, India and other East Asian states to balance Western domination in the international fora.

In a policy briefing to review foreign affairs in 1999 and chart the coming year, foreign minister Alwi Shihab warned of the rising trend of Western states imposing their will on others.

In what could be a prelude of Indonesia's future foreign policy course, the foreign ministry lambasted Western political- economic domination and chided fellow developing states for subverting to their agenda.

It instead solicited an Asian caucus which it felt could be a sufficient counterweight.

"Indonesia should be aware of the endeavor of Western states who have an increasing tendency to impose their political agenda on developing countries by employing economic and political pressure and sanctions," he said in his written assessment on Thursday.

For the sake of national interest he called on a common stance among Asian states to balance the domination.

"In particular, a political strategic partnership should be forged with China and India, while at the same time intensifying East Asian regional cooperation," he said.

The 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan and South Korea were identified as "the main components" of this partnership.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Indonesia, along with fellow ASEAN members, advocated the formation of a loose pseudo-regional bloc which could be counter-Western to, in particular, the United States' preponderance.

ASEAN, along with China, Japan and South Korea, have begun to hold regular informal talks among themselves, with their leaders coming together to meet in Manila in November 1999.

However, the latest policy statement marks a mild deviation for Jakarta's reserved style, which usually refrains from such an aggressive regional-bloc approach.

Alwi in his statement, nevertheless, calmed possible fears of a retrenchment toward the antagonistic attitude of the past. He asserted that Indonesia's foreign policy would remain rational and moderate by upholding the basic principles of cooperation, noninterference and national sovereignty.

Indonesian diplomacy will shy away from a confrontational attitude, he pledged.

At the root of the matter is the strong belief of growing intervention and imposition of will by the developed Western states.

While the 57-page briefing paper covers a multitude of issues in almost all aspects of foreign policy, including internal issues within the ministry, fears of the undermining of national sovereignty was a notable component.

"Indonesia is facing a trend of new internationalism in many forms and pressures," Alwi said, citing East Timor and human rights as among them.

The "domination of the West over the global community" was said to be perpetuated in two ways.

The first was through an agenda setting in various multilateral forums. "This means that the international community would discuss more topics which the West have a vested interest in," he said.

The second was through a dependency on the West's economic prowess.

Weak

Once a strong advocate of South-South cooperation, Indonesia spewed a stinging condemnation at the lack of solidarity, which it worked so hard to strive for among the developing countries.

It described cooperation among developing states as "weak and losing steam" and particularly chided Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) chairman South Africa and previous chair Colombia.

"The Non-Aligned Movement, which is now led by South Africa, no longer plays a significant role in the international scene," Alwi said in the briefing paper.

"In fact, it is ironic that South Africa and Colombia, as fellow chairmen of NAM, supported the resolution which cornered Indonesia at a recent (UN) human rights commission session," he said.

Indonesia chaired the Movement from 1992 to 1995.

Alwi also lamented the fact that several developing states were placing solidarity as a second priority, and instead prostrate to the interests of Western states.

"This is reflected in the voting pattern in multilateral forums," he said.

Despite the strong rhetoric, Alwi conceded in his briefing paper that the country's economic recovery was of paramount concern, and thus "Indonesia's closeness to Western donor countries is unavoidable".