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Re: Re: anti americans?
| quote: | Originally posted by shaolin_Z
do you think you can post the article? I can't read it without a login. thanks. |
Once-Critical Indonesians Are Grateful to U.S. for Aid
By RAYMOND BONNER
Published: January 7, 2005
JAKARTA, Indonesia, Jan. 6 - The United States military's huge relief effort for tsunami victims in South Asia is producing something of a political upheaval here, in the world's most populous Muslim country: America is being praised, even by some of its harshest critics, while Arab countries are being questioned.
"I am getting messages from friends saying, 'Why have the Muslim countries been so slow and stingy?' " said Goenawan Mohamad, one of the country's leading intellectuals.
Washington's campaign against terrorism, its staunch support of Israel and its occupation of Iraq have been widely interpreted by Indonesians as a war on Islam, and the Bush administration's various efforts to influence public opinion have failed to counter that impression. The American military came in for particular criticism in the Muslim world, after the shocking and continuing revelations of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.
All of that contributed to a sharp decline in America's image here in the years after Sept. 11, 2001, when Indonesians generally expressed solidarity with the United States. Before the tsunami struck, only some 15 percent of Indonesians had a favorable view of the United States, down from around 65 percent a few years ago.
Now, though, Indonesians are comparing the small amounts that have been offered by Arab countries with the hundreds of millions offered by the United States, Australia, Europe, Japan and China, said Mr. Mohamad, who like most Indonesians opposed the American invasion of Iraq.
A few days ago Koran Tempo, one of the country's major daily newspapers, published a reader's letter asking various radical Islamic organizations here why they were not helping in Aceh. "Don't only work through violence," the writer said. "Use your money to help, not just to buy equipment to hurt people."
The best news for Washington, though, may be no news: the absence of criticism among radical Islamic groups, even of the presence of American soldiers on Indonesian soil. A few weeks ago the mere suggestion of such a thing would have provoked demonstrations.
"That's a surprise, really," Dino Djalal, a spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said about the silence of the radicals.
American soldiers delivering aid have been featured on the front pages of newspapers and on television, in praise not condemnation. But the American honeymoon may prove short, and some cautionary notes were sounded Thursday.
The American troops have shown themselves to be "very sweet and humane," wrote Irfan Junaidi, a columnist in Republika, an Islamic newspaper. "There's nothing wrong with that," he continued, but then asked whether this picture of American humanitarianism bore any relation to American foreign policy, especially in Iraq.
For the moment, Indonesia's international image has gained from the attention brought in the aftermath of the destruction. Since the terrorist attack on Bali nightclubs in October 2002, the United States, Australia and other countries have issued travel advisories warning their citizens about terrorist dangers here. The warnings have hurt the country economically, keeping tourists away in great numbers.
Just three weeks ago, Australia issued one of the most alarming travel warnings, saying it had specific intelligence that terrorists were planning attacks over the Christmas period. It urged its citizens here to leave, and Qantas took the warning so seriously that its airline crews stopped spending the night in Jakarta hotels.
The Australian warning specifically mentioned the Hilton Hotel as a place of a possible attack.
Yet on Thursday, all of the world leaders who have arrived here for the relief effort - Secretary of State Colin L. Powell; Prime Ministers John Howard of Australia, Wen Jiabao of China and Junichiro Koizumi of Japan; Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain; Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations; the president of the World Bank, James D. Wolfensohn; and a score of aides, ambassadors and senior officials - were gathered in a conference center here in the shadows of the Hilton.
Indonesians are not basically anti-American, Mr. Mohamad said. Indeed, while the Islamic extremists can be loud and violent, they account for only a tiny minority, and most Indonesians practice a moderate strain of Islam.
But whether the good feelings generated by America's relief effort will be enough to overcome the resentment built up over the last several years is a good question, Mr. Mohamad said. "The criticism will remain, but the sting will be less," he suggested.
It has helped that President Bush brought out his father and former President Bill Clinton to raise money for the relief effort, Mr. Mohamad said. "It deflects attention from Bush Jr., who is not the most popular person in the world."
Rachmat Witolear, a longtime force in one of the country's largest political parties, Golkar, and the current environment minister, agreed that the relief assistance would improve America's standing here. But how much will depend on how President Bush acts, he said.
"It's a good initiative," Mr. Witolear said. "But still he has to be careful because the prevailing view of him being arrogant is still there."
The views about the United States assistance are not all positive. Some Indonesians are still smarting over the fact that the Bush administration was slow to respond and at first offered only $15 million. It was only after being criticized by the United Nations, and after other countries had come forth with large pledges, that the United States increased its aid to $350 million, said Nasrul Haq, chairman of the student body at Padjajaran University in Bandung.
"It looks like they are concerned about their ego, that the United States as a superpower doesn't want anyone to beat them," he said in a telephone interview.
Still, as Mr. Mohamad said, on the whole the feeling is good. "I hope it will last," he added.
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