New Indonesia-U.S. ties

Being a true democrat, President Abdurrahman Wahid must have felt more at home talking with U.S. President Bill Clinton in Washington on Friday than he did when he met with some of the despots during his earlier Southeast Asian tour. Two people who share and respect universal values always find it easier to communicate than if their sets of values were different.

Abdurrahman's commitment to democracy is legendary. For all his shortcomings and lack of administrative skills, his consistency in fighting for democratic values is the one most telling factor that brought him to the presidency. Now that he has taken a personal interest in foreign policy, he is setting the tone for Indonesia's new style of diplomacy, one that is imbued with universal values he believes so strongly in.

There are bound to be differences between Abdurrahman and Clinton, as there are bound to be problems between the two countries. But the fact that they have a common set of values allows for frank discussions about these differences and problems. Their White House encounter may not resolve or bridge these differences, but it has paved the way for more fruitful meetings in the future.

The United States has always ranked at the top of Indonesia's foreign policy. It is one of Indonesia's major trading partners and a major source of private direct investment. Washington may not rank highest among Indonesia's aid donor countries, but a lot of the money channeled by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund originated from the United States. Indonesia also cannot underestimate the fact that the United States is the sole superpower and therefore is calling a lot of the shots at the United Nations. It was the pressures brought on by Clinton that forced Abdurrahman's predecessor, president B.J. Habibie, to let the UN peacekeeping force into East Timor in September.

Any relations, to be fruitful, must be mutually beneficial and based on mutual respect. Washington has always recognized the importance of Indonesia to its strategic interests in Asia, and the role Jakarta plays in regional diplomacy. Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous nation; it is the world's largest Muslim country; the archipelago strides across strategic sea lanes; and the country possess a wealth of natural resources.

For all Abdurrahman's talks about putting Asia first in his foreign policy, ties with Washington remain crucial. The President knows this all too well as shown by his insistence to meet Clinton, even if only briefly, during his current medical trip to the United States. Clinton responded positively by fitting the meeting into his schedule at short notice. This could well mark the beginning of a new era in our bilateral relations.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Jakarta's staunch anti- communist stance underpinned Washington's vital strategic interests of supporting the regime of president Soeharto. Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975 could not have taken place without the approval of Washington and Australia, which feared that an independent East Timor could turn into a Cuba in Jakarta's backyard. Washington turned a blind eye to all the atrocities committed by the Soeharto regime, whether in Indonesia or in East Timor, in the name of its strategic interests.

When the Cold War ended early this decade, however, those geopolitical interests underpinning relations vanished and they were replaced, as in Jakarta's relations with most other countries, by economic and trade interests.

Humanitarian values, that is respect for democracy and human rights, also began to assert themselves in post Cold War international relations. Governments of the world are now measured not solely by their economic competitiveness, but also by how they observe these values. Because of the authoritarian nature of the regime in Jakarta, relations with the United States were cordial at best. They could never reach their true potential because of Jakarta's constant abuse of human rights, in Indonesia and East Timor.

All this is changing after the recent establishment of a more democratically elected government in Indonesia, and the election of President Abdurrahman who has an international reputation for his fight for universal values and principles. The separation of East Timor from Indonesia may be painful, but it has eliminated the one single largest factor that has tarnished Indonesia's human rights reputation. There are still other human rights problems to resolve, but under Abdurrahman it will be just a matter of time before the government gets around to them.

Abdurrahman's visit to the United States has not only marked the beginning of a new period in Jakarta's relations with Washington, but also turned a new page in its foreign policy. With a lot of the excess baggage removed, Indonesia can pursue a more active and independent foreign policy, as required by the Constitution, with much more confidence than it has in the past.

Relations between Indonesia and the United States must indeed be based on the principles of mutual benefits and mutual respect, but from now they will also be built based upon shared values and principles of human rights and democracy, not only by their leaders, but also their people. This is the best way to build a fruitful and stable relationship.