Minister Straw's visit

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.