Never a dull moment for U.S. envoy

Never a dull moment for U.S. envoy

Dean Yates, Reuters, Jakarta

Ralph Boyce doesn't miss a beat when describing his first year in the hot seat as Washington's ambassador to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

"Never a dull moment," says Boyce, whom some influential Indonesians praise for trying to steer a diplomatic path through a minefield of sensitive issues, especially the U.S.-led war on terrorism and now a possible American attack on Iraq.

Since arriving in Jakarta a year ago, the career foreign service officer has seen countless protests from militant Muslims outside his embassy in central Jakarta and been forced to close the mission over threats of terrorist attack.

Most recently Boyce faced heated accusations a leaked Central Intelligence Agency report on al-Qaeda and its links to Indonesia, published in Time magazine, was an attempt both to pressure Jakarta to crack down on radical Muslims and to smear the country's image.

Plenty is at stake for the United States in Indonesia, a vast moderate Muslim country struggling to navigate a messy transition to democracy after decades of autocratic rule.

Jakarta's support for the war on terrorism has been vital, something Boyce has made a point of regularly noting in public. And now that indications of al-Qaeda activity in Indonesia are hardening, it will also be vital to encourage President Megawati Soekarnoputri to roll up her sleeves and move decisively.

Washington blames the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden for last year's suicide attacks on New York and Washington.

"I don't think I came with a particular plan, (but) it seems Indonesia is a place where the complexities and challenges this society are facing are such that a little bit of understanding and supportive comments go a long way," said Boyce, 50.

Indonesia has come under the microscope during the war on terror partly due to its porous borders, weak law enforcement and the presence of small, homegrown radical Muslim groups.

Those fears have grown since the Time magazine article last month, which, quoting from the CIA report, detailed bomb and assassination plots involving an Arab arrested in Indonesia, who was allegedly al-Qaeda's senior operative in Southeast Asia.

Reaching out to the moderate Muslim majority from the day he arrived has been a focal point of Boyce's posting. That has added up to dozens of meetings with Muslim leaders.

In some meetings, mistrust of Washington's intentions has boiled over, but Boyce insisted that did not frustrate him.

With his beard and spectacles making him look more like a university professor than Washington's pointman for Indonesia, Boyce's style contrasts with that of his predecessor, Robert Gelbard, who was often at odds publicly with Jakarta.

Boyce has plenty of experience in Asia and the Muslim world, having served in Iran, Tunisia, Pakistan, Thailand and Singapore.

One man who counts Boyce as a friend is Syafii Maarif, head of the 30-million strong moderate Muhammadiyah organization.

"I am good friends with the ambassador...I told him please stay here for 10 more years," Maarif told Reuters last month.

Ishak Latuconsina, deputy head of parliament's commission on defense and foreign affairs, said: "I think the ambassador's approach has been positive, he has observed matters more objectively. While some of his actions have been a bit startling, like closing the embassy, after that he clarified in a proper way as to why he did it."

Boyce did say the Time report had made his job tough.

"I guess there was a certain amount of reaching out to clarify misconceptions that came in the wake of the Time magazine flap, but it's not like reaching out to people that we're not already in touch with," he said.

Indeed, in a war where the message from U.S. President George W. Bush has been "you're either with us or you're against us", Boyce's style doesn't seem to fit.

Boyce argues that Bush's own interpretation of that remark is not as black and white as it may appear, and that it really depends on each country's domestic situation.

"We have never for a moment considered that Indonesia was not with us in the global campaign against terror," said Boyce.