U.S.-sponsored `new world order' proven ineffective
JAKARTA (JP): Any new world order must be based on the partnership of all nations in the world and not on the sole leadership of the United States, a senior diplomat says.
Hasnan Habib, Indonesia's former ambassador to the U.S and a retired Army lieutenant general, said the U.S. leadership, as the sole major power, has proven ineffective in solving many of the problems that surfaced in the post Cold War era.
"The U.S., and other big countries, should abandon the idea of supremacy in the world, and begin a new international cooperation," he told a seminar on the role of the U.S. in Sustaining Global Stability organized by the Association of American Studies of the University of Indonesia.
Hasnan said international partnership is becoming more important because it now becomes apparent that the U.S. will not be able to lead the world alone.
Washington needs the support and cooperation of other nations, including the small ones, he added.
Supporting Habib's argument, Managing Director of the World Trade Center in Jakarta Erwin Ramedhan said the U.S. often looks down at small nations. "It's because most Americans have one- track minds. They only see their country as the best."
Erwin said Washington should pay more attention to the aspiration of the developing countries, including Indonesia. "We are becoming an important country, and the U.S. should know this. But I don't think the U.S. really understands it," he said.
Col. Karl F. Eickemeyer, a military attache at the American Embassy in Jakarta, said the U.S. sees Indonesia as an important country, especially in Southeast Asia and among developing nations as it chairs the Non-Align Movement (NAM).
During a recent Worldnet satellite dialog with interlocutors in Indonesia, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Winston Lord had expressed the same argument by citing president Soeharto's constructive role in NAM and the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Lord is scheduled to visit Indonesia beginning today until August 1, to meet with the government officials to discuss the upcoming APEC meetings to be held here and other issues of mutual interest to the two countries, according to a U.S. embassy statement.
Critics
At yesterday's discussion, Hasnan criticized the U.S. leadership after the Gulf War, especially after President Bill Clinton's ascent to the White House.
Hasnan described Clinton's foreign policy as "swaying with the wind," as shown in the way he deals with crises in Bosnia- Herzegovina, Somalia, Haiti, North Korea, China and Rwanda.
Clinton promised to bombard Serbian strategic positions in Sarajevo after the Bosnian Serbs did not comply with UN calls to surrender their weaponry, but he never carried out his threat, Hasnan said.
Clinton withdrew all American forces from Somalia after it became apparent that their peace mission failed, seemed confused in treating Haiti's military regime, and appeared "toothless" when facing China, he said.
Citing Jeffrey E. Garten, a professor at Columbia University, Hasnan listed a number of negative factors which led to the decrease in U.S. pivotal role in the world.
The U.S. is facing economic drawbacks, as its fiscal policies are uncontrolled so that its savings are the lowest among the developed countries. And its national debt has exceeded US$3.5 trillion, he said.
Its social fabric has also deteriorated. Americans have become harsh, mean and even violent. Murder cases there are ten times higher than in Japan or Germany, he said.
Its education system, especially of junior and senior schooling, is even worse. Also the number of people living below the poverty line tends to increase from year to year.
He then quoted President Nixon as saying, "Without a great cause to galvanize America, the very unity of our nation will be at risk as we struggle to meet the challenges of the coming century... If America is to remain a great nation, what we need today is a mission beyond peace." (rid)