Minister Straw's visit
By now, the British Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Jack Straw, must have conveyed to his fellow cabinet members his impressions on his visit to Indonesia and Malaysia last week. He did stop over in Singapore, but as far as his mission to explain the British and American position on Iraq is concerned, the important stops on his itinerary were no doubt Indonesia and Malaysia, the majority of whose populations are Muslim. Officially, his visit to Indonesia was to accept the invitation extended by Hasyim Muzadi, chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia with roughly 40 million followers.
It is not that Britain would change its mind and decide not to support the U.S. in its plan to attack Iraq in view of the skeptical, and even critical, views aired both in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. On the other hand, it seems that neither NU nor any of the other religious leaders who were present at the meeting with Minister Straw last Thursday had shifted from their rejection of an attack on Iraq.
NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi was quoted as saying after the meeting that, "Almost all Indonesians disagree with an attack on Iraq, and such a move would widen the gap between the West and us." Hasyim Muzadi was in a position to relate such a comment, because Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda had issued a strong and clear statement on the issue. Wirayuda stated that Indonesia could not approve of such a move if it was made outside the framework of the UN resolution. Foreign Minister Straw, for his part, stated that "war is not inevitable" if only President Saddam Hussein agreed to the peaceful disarmament of his weapons of mass destruction.
But if the meeting was unable to change the views of the parties involved, then what could have been the purpose of the British foreign minister's visit? From NU's point of view, and we could safely say Indonesia's as well, the visit was appreciated as London's special gesture and effort to understand the views of those Southeast Asian countries with a Muslim majority population. And, as far as Indonesia is concerned, he might also have come to the understanding that the stance of the Republic of Indonesia which, as Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda explained to him, has traditionally adhered to an independent and active foreign policy, is not dictated by only its Islamic majority.
Most probably, Foreign Minister Straw's visit to Indonesia and Malaysia served his own domestic political interests as well, especially by appeasing the left wing of the Labor Party and to convince it that the Labor government has made serious efforts to clarify why it has been supporting the U.S. in its plan to go to war against Iraq.
Realistically, however, we in Indonesia should make the necessary political and economic preparations in anticipation of a war breaking out although, as D Day seems to be getting closer, both Washington and London may make additional efforts to justify their decision to attack Iraq -- perhaps by stating that the UN team of inspectors failed to carry out its assignment to discover Iraq's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
War should not cause internal upheavals, precisely because of the need to maintain our political stability, so as not to upset the fragile national stability. We should not spend too much of our emotions reacting to the U.S.-British decision. Instead, we should concentrate on taking the preparatory measures necessary to confine any negative effects resulting from a war on Iraq.