`Official statements against Bush may disturb ties'

`Official statements against Bush may disturb ties'

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Tough words from Indonesian officials against U.S. President
George W. Bush regarding the war on Iraq may affect bilateral
relations, an analyst has warned.

Kusnanto Anggoro of the Centre for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) said that despite the fact that Indonesia strongly
opposed the U.S. policy, there were certain ethics of diplomacy
that should be upheld.

"As statesmen, Indonesian officials should have taken the
diplomatic code of conduct into account before making any
statements regarding another country's policy," Kusnanto told The
Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Kusnanto was commenting on the recent statement from Vice
President Hamzah Haz, who dubbed President Bush as "king of
terrorists" on Friday.

Hamzah was the second top-ranking official to attack Bush
personally, after People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien
Rais likened Bush to a war criminal last Monday.

The two state officials chair the United Development Party and
the National Mandate Party, respectively, whose constituents
mostly hail from the Muslim community.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who chairs the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle, told Bush during their last phone
conversation -- just hours after the U.S. began its strike on
Iraq -- that she could not understand his decision to go to war;
but she short stopped of making a personal attack on Bush.

Kusnanto said he understood that, as politicians, the
officials needed to satisfy their domestic constituents, but
asserted that in doing so, they should not put the nation's
diplomatic relations on the line.

"It cannot be one or the other. Winning the domestic
constituents' support does not mean jeopardizing diplomatic
relations with other countries," he said.

Indonesia is dependent on the U.S. in terms of financial aid,
foreign investment and military equipment.

Rallies against the war have become commonplace in the world's
most populous Muslim country, and protests were frequent even
before the start of the war on March 20. Some protesters have
targeted U.S. business interests here, and called for a boycott
of American products.

Although Jakarta called Washington's attack on Iraq "an act of
aggression", Kusnanto said that protests against the U.S. should
be conveyed politely.

"The world considers Hamzah as our vice president, and making
such a statement could hurt the country's credibility," he added.

Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said,
however, that so far there had been no complaints from the U.S.
regarding the country's strong opposition to the war on Iraq.

"Washington clearly knew from the beginning that we had a
different view regarding the war, and that similar rejections
would also be voiced around the globe," he said.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, an analyst from the Indonesian Institute
of Sciences (LIPI), played down the diplomatic implications of
Indonesian senior officials' statements on the war, saying that
many other head of states, including Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad, had chided Bush in much harsher ways.

"Why should we ask our leaders to be polite, when others are
even more impolite in their statements?" she commented.

"It is a fact that Bush is a terrorist, as his actions have
caused the indiscriminate killing of Iraqi civilians."