Reforms linked to war against terrorism

Reforms linked to war against terrorism

Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Foreign investors are waiting for Indonesia to make
considerable progress on a range of reforms linked to the war
against terrorism, United States Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph
Boyce told a discussion on Thursday.

Boyce said the country's reforms in regard to promoting law
and order, reforming the judiciary, implementing new anti-money
laundering laws and passing counter-terrorism legislation have
"quite frankly lagged".

In the discussion titled U.S. Perspectives on the War on
Terrorism, Boyce said that the link between reforms in these
areas and the fight against terrorism was the fact that the best
weapon against extremism were good jobs and an optimistic sense
about the future. Creating good jobs, he said, required major
investments like building factories, infrastructure projects,
service companies and investing in mines.

"Indonesia should fundamentally improve the environment for
investment, both domestic and foreign. Indonesia's legal system,
however, is still ineffective and corrupt," Boyce criticized.

He added that Indonesian companies could also easily
manipulate courts to criminalize standard business disputes.

"In the past months, five American investors have been forced
into court on charges that would never hold up in a U.S. court.
Each of these companies have shown a long-term commitment to
Indonesia, but still finds itself lost in a non-transparent legal
maze," Boyce told audiences.

The discussion, organized by the Financial Club Jakarta and
the Indonesian Council on World Affairs, was attended by former
defense minister Juwono Sudarsono, former foreign minister Ali
Alatas, foreign ambassadors, entrepreneurs, Indonesian scholars
and academics and representatives of international organizations.

Boyce added that even as investors understood that the
Indonesian government officially had no direct control over the
courts, they would need to see principled leadership on legal
reform from the highest levels of the Indonesian government.

The ambassador said support from the U.S. and Indonesia's
other development partners would give Indonesia a chance to put
into place the underlying laws and institutions to fight
terrorism more effectively.

"Potential investors will take note of improvements in
Indonesia's institutions and calculate that their investments
will be safer as a result," he said.

The U.S. has pledged assistance to Indonesia in the counter-
terrorism field, among others, by offering to help implement the
newly passed anti-money laundering bill and establish the
Financial Transaction Center to investigate suspicious financial
transactions.

When Boyce said that Indonesia should take a much stronger
stance against terrorism, scathing questions arose from the forum
in regard to Washington's extremely cautious behavior toward
Israel in the Israel-Palestine conflict, a matter which has
caused uproar among Muslim groups in Indonesia.

Ali Alatas told Boyce that apart from being indignant,
Indonesia was bewildered over the matter.

"What's the secret that such a small country as Israel... a
country that is so dependent on the U.S., remains in defiance of
the almighty President of the United States and the almighty
United Nations Security Council, and still gets away with it (the
killings)?" Ali asked Boyce.

Boyce did not answer this question directly, but explained
later that there was an ongoing crisis in the U.S.-Israel
relationship, which was still playing itself out.

"It's a real challenge for the U.S. today as the lone
remaining superpower. You are constantly called upon to either
defend yourself against not doing enough because of your
responsibility and role, or to defend yourself against the charge
that you are doing too much, too fast, intervening," Boyce said.