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Visit to Mark Closer Ties With Jakarta
Workers clean in front of the Bogor Palace, where President Bush and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono are to meet. U.S.-Indonesian relations are the warmest in years.
(By Achmad Ibrahim -- Associated Press)
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After the confrontation between the United States and Indonesia in the 1990s over human rights, the Bush administration opted for a pragmatic approach. It saw Indonesia as an example of a country trying to move toward democracy after decades of authoritarianism under strongman Suharto, who ruled from 1966 to 1998.
And there were fears the country could break apart amid widespread religious and ethnic violence, terrorist attacks and a prolonged economic crisis.
Sudarsono, the defense minister, said in an interview that the U.S. ban on weapons sales and training programs for Indonesian military officers was counterproductive "not only for the development of the TNI, but it went against the grain of helping the only institution capable of holding the country together."
"The Americans see that they need the military in the fight against terrorism," said Jusuf Wanandi, chairman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta. "Secondly, this has been the group they trusted for so long during the Suharto time because they're anti-communist and anti-China."
The restoration of ties was welcomed by reformers among former and current top Indonesian officers, who have said sanctions played into the hands of army officers who wanted the military to continue playing a leading role in politics as they did during Suharto's "New Order" regime.
"The gap of several years created the perception that we didn't need foreign military education," said Agus Widjojo, a retired army general, "and that such foreign programs only spurred reform ideas rather than traditional military thoughts."
The Indonesian military has taken some reform initiatives since the 1999 East Timor crisis, including giving up its appointed seats in parliament, selling off its business interests and putting its chain of command under a civilian defense minister. These moves won over skeptics in the U.S. Congress, which also has followed the White House in taking a softer approach toward the Indonesian military.
But analysts and some retired generals said they feared the reform drive had stalled. More input is needed now from political leaders, they said, but the country's civilian leadership is still too weak to confront obstructionist generals in the ranks.
