RI stuck at home with domestic crises: UIN

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Although it is emerging as the world's largest Muslim democracy, the country still has a long way to go until it plays a greater role in the Muslim world and other international affairs due to lingering domestic problems, say analysts.

Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) rector Azyumardi Azra said on Wednesday that hopes for Indonesia to set an example for other Muslim countries in modernizing their political systems would be hard to fulfill.

"This is not only because Indonesia continues to adopt a policy of ambiguity, but also because Muslim Arab countries tend to underestimate the importance of Indonesian Islam and the country's huge population.

"Indonesian Islam is not considered 'real Islam' as opposed to Middle Eastern Islam, and Indonesian Muslims are regarded as 'not Islamic' enough," he told an international seminar on Islam and democracy held by the UIN's Center for Languages and Cultures (PBB).

Azyumardi said the country's success in consolidating democracy through the peaceful general elections this year should encourage it to be more active in being a model for the compatibility of Islam and democracy.

"But again, it seems this hope will be very difficult to realize for the same reasons," he added.

He said Indonesia could return to a prominent role in international diplomacy, as it had in the past, if it managed to resolve its internal crises.

Similarly, Kusnanto Anggoro of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said Indonesia's success in putting an end to domestic problems would determine its significance in world affairs.

"Islam is not the determining factor in this matter, but how we resolve our internal affairs will strengthen our international role," Kusnanto told the two-day seminar that ended on Wednesday.

Indonesia is widely perceived to be a secular, instead of an Islamic, nation, even though most of its 220 million-strong population are Muslims, he argued.

"So domestic politics is very important in strengthening international relations," Kusnanto said.

Azyumardi said Indonesia had been "the sleeping giant" of Southeast Asia for the past six years.

"This is not because Indonesia has adopted a low-profile diplomacy at the international level, but mostly because it has lost its elan," he said. "This, of course, is due mainly to the internal crises Indonesia has been facing since Soeharto's fall."

During the economic crisis, the government was forced to downsize its overseas diplomatic staff for the sake of efficiency. Ironically, this arguably affected the effectiveness of its embassies worldwide in their diplomatic duties, Azyumardi said.

"More importantly, however, domestic uncertainties and national instability have been mainly responsible for our decreasing role in international diplomacy," he added.

Soeharto's 32-year authoritarian rule was followed by a transition into the reform era, during which the country's political stability was put at high risk under the three successive presidents: BJ Habibie, Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid and Megawati Soekarnoputri.

These last three presidents focused on efforts to overcome serious domestic problems that had been blamed on bickering among the political elite.

The political quarrel peaked in 2001, when Gus Dur was impeached by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) for incompetence.

The present government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was directly elected to the post in September, also faces political risk in the opposition camp in the House of Representatives formed by the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the two largest parties in the country.

Azyumardi said Gus Dur once tried to revive Indonesia's role in international diplomacy by making official visits to various countries, but added that the frequent overseas trips seemed not to produce the desired results.

As with Habibie and Megawati, Gus Dur apparently had no clear foreign policy, the UIN rector argued.

However, Kusnanto said he believed Susilo would be able to strengthen Indonesia's foreign role, as he is more "articulate" in communicating his policies than his predecessor Megawati, who promoted "silent diplomacy".