[Marxism] Aid Effort in Indonesia Could Lift U.S. Image in Eyes of Muslims

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(While genuine help is being welcomes, some question
Washington's motives in providing it at this time as
the richest and most powerful nation on the planet at
first pledged $15 million dollars, but has now come
up with $350 million. Of course meanwhile billions
are being spent trying to crush Iraq into submission.)
=====================================================

January 5, 2005
PAGE ONE

Aid Effort in Indonesia Could Lift
U.S. Image in Eyes of Muslims

By NEIL KING JR. in Washington and
DONALD GREENLEES in Medan, Indonesia
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 5, 2005; Page A1


In Iraq, U.S. Marines gun down Arab insurgents. In
Indonesia, U.S. sailors drop bags of rice to Muslims along
the devastated coastline of Aceh province.

Can American rice trump American guns across the Muslim
world?

Senior aides to President Bush, including outgoing
Secretary of State Colin Powell, have been loath to depict
the massive U.S. relief effort under way in Asia as an
outright bid to improve the U.S.'s tarnished image among
the world's 1.3 billion Muslims. But the U.S. operation --
which involves dozens of warships, scores of helicopters
and hundreds of troops, to be followed eventually by
rebuilding teams -- does offer the administration a big
chance to repair the rift opened by the U.S.'s push against
Iraq.

After a brief stumble last week, President Bush has leapt
into the breach with a $350 million commitment in aid
dollars as well as the largest contingent of military
assistance in the region -- the costs of which come on top
of the aid. That followed an initial pledge of $15 million,
and was part of a broader surge of aid from Western nations
as the scope and scale of the disaster became clear.

For the U.S., the diplomatic opportunities are greatest in
Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country and the one
hardest hit. There, the U.S. has outdone even the country's
own government in running food and rescue missions in
northern Sumatra, where more than 90,000 people died after
the Dec. 26 earthquake and ensuing tsunami. Pictures of
American forces shuttling supplies have become regular
features on Indonesian television, and some observers there
say their arrival already has changed attitudes toward the
U.S. for the better.

If warmer relations result, the U.S. could improve ties
with a country it sees as key to the fight against
terrorism, and with an Indonesian military with a
human-rights record that has stood in the way of
cooperation. Some analysts think the U.S. might seek to
parlay heightened influence with Indonesia into increased
naval policing of the Strait of Malacca, a perilous stretch
of water between Malaysia and Sumatra that remains one of
the world's foremost hubs for piracy and international
smuggling that might be aiding in terror financing.

There's no guarantee such advances will be realized, of
course. The U.S. has had rocky relations with Indonesia for
years, largely because of recurring human-rights abuses.
Congress cut off most military-to-military ties with
Jakarta in 1999 after soldiers and proxy militia killed
nearly 1,500 people in East Timor. Some leading members of
Congress say they remain reluctant to look past Indonesia's
human-rights record.

Tim Rieser, an aide to Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick
Leahy, a vocal opponent of reopening military ties with
Jakarta, said the tsunami isn't likely to cause a change of
heart in Congress toward the Indonesian military. "They
have not demonstrated one bit of willingness to address the
many problems they have," Mr. Rieser said.

U.S. foreign assistance has only a mixed record in winning
friends for Washington. Massive American aid to Germany and
Japan after World War II created lasting alliances. But the
U.S. saw no warming in bilateral relations with Iran, a
country it considers a sponsor of terrorism, after it
provided $5.7 million in medical aid, search-and-rescue
support, blankets and other supplies for the victims of the
Bam earthquake in December 2003. American food aid to North
Korea during floods and famine there in 1997 came at a time
when bilateral relations were the least frosty in decades,
but the detente didn't last far into the Bush
administration.

Nor is it a sure thing that a surge in pro-American
sentiments will stick once the relief work is done, any
more than pro-American sympathies lasted after the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Suspicion of the U.S. remains
high among some Indonesian Muslim leaders. And progress in
Indonesia might be difficult to translate into improved
perceptions among Muslims in the broader Arab world. Arab
newspapers have devoted little space to the disaster
overall, and even less to the Western-led aid efforts.

The U.S. isn't the only country that could gain more
influence through its largesse. Japan, for one, has offered
as much as $500 million in aid and has sent ships to assist
in relief efforts in Indonesia and Thailand. Substantial
sums have been pledged by the United Kingdom, Sweden and
Spain, among others.

Still, the biggest nation in the region, China, has pledged
only $60 million in aid despite its regional ambitions, in
addition to sending a few medical teams to several of the
battered countries. And oil-rich Arab countries haven't
jumped in strongly so far, though Saudi Arabia yesterday
boosted an initial pledge of $10 million to $30 million,
and said officials would sponsor a fund-raising telethon on
Saudi television tomorrow.

The reality, aid officials from around the world
acknowledge, is that only the U.S. military has the ability
to swiftly move aid to the many areas in distress. That
fact, coupled with American donations, offers Mr. Bush a
chance to highlight U.S. compassion, and display a softer
side to America's massive military, after three years in
which his foreign policy has been focused overwhelmingly on
combating terrorism, the war in Iraq and dealing with
trouble spots like North Korea.

Speaking in Jakarta yesterday, Mr. Powell said the U.S. aid
effort gave the world "an opportunity to see American
generosity, American values in action." The U.S., he said,
"is not an anti-Islamic, anti-Muslim nation." Giving
humanitarian relief "dries up those pools of
dissatisfaction that might give rise to terrorist
activity."

Former President Bush, who is embarking on a mission for
his son to raise relief funds, struck a similar theme
Monday on CNN. "I think [the U.S. aid effort] will help the
United States in every one of the countries that have been
devastated," he said. "I'm absolutely convinced of it."

In Indonesia, U.S. aid is concentrated in the
disaster-wracked province of Aceh, but the opportunity
extends across the archipelago of 230 million people.
Favorable views toward the U.S. plunged in Indonesia after
the U.S. invasion of Iraq, as they did across much of the
world. But there are signs of an upswing.

"The tsunami has opened up all sorts of opportunities for a
better relationship," said Rizal Mallarangeng, director of
Jakarta's Freedom Institute and an adviser to Indonesia's
senior economic minister, Aburizal Bakrie. "It will be very
good if the United States can show that this disaster is
not less important than the fight against terrorism."

Since a U.S. Navy battle group, centered on the aircraft
carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, arrived off the provincial
capital, Banda Aceh, Indonesian television viewers have
seen nightly images of American helicopters bringing relief
to stricken coastal communities. The scale of the U.S.
contribution, and the intense coverage of it in the
Indonesian media, has the potential to turn around
widespread anti-Americanism spurred by anger over the
invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Indonesian analysts
said.

"On all our national news programs, you can see it every
night," said Jusuf Wanandi, a senior analyst in Jakarta
with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a
Washington-based think tank. "The American contribution is
very big. I think the Americans are playing it right." Mr.
Wanandi pointed out the irony that it is the presence of
the U.S. military that is helping bring about the change in
anti-American perceptions.

Other analysts in Indonesia argue that both the American
and Indonesian governments can gain from a broadening U.S.
role in Southeast Asia. Alwi Shihab, Indonesia's chief
social welfare minister, said U.S. aid could defuse
anti-Western sentiment that has helped spread radical
Islamic beliefs among a minority of Indonesian Muslims.
"America is doing a good job to help the people of Aceh,"
he said. "This will lessen the magnitude of the radicalism
against the U.S."

R. William Liddle, an Indonesia scholar at Ohio State
University, has monitored an Internet mail list of
Indonesian Muslims for years. The postings became sharply
negative after the Iraq war began, he said, but have taken
on a different tone in recent days. "Welcome Uncle Sam!"
read one posting over the weekend, which also took to task
Indonesia's initially sluggish response to the crisis.

Mr. Powell yesterday suggested that rebuilding efforts both
in Aceh and in warring areas of northern Sri Lanka could
help heal secessionist passions in both areas. "Maybe we
can get over these disasters and find areas for
reconciliation," Mr. Powell said.

Indonesian analysts contend that President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, who took office in October, has been presented
with his best chance yet to shift the emphasis of the
government fight against independence in Aceh away from
military operations to a hearts-and-minds campaign based on
economic and social development.

Political and economic dividends of a change in the
political climate in Aceh could be considerable. The
province has been a major source of the liquefied natural
gas that Indonesia sells to Japan and South Korea. But the
Arun gas field, operated by Exxon Mobil Corp. in the east
of the province, soon will be tapped out. Just south of
that field is a three trillion-cubic-foot reserve
controlled by Houston-based energy giant ConocoPhillips.
The company has been under pressure from the Indonesian
government to start development of the site in order to
keep the gas flowing from Aceh when the Arun reserves dry
up.

Moreover, Mr. Bush could push for stronger ties in his
fight on terrorism. The country already has been an active,
though at times low-profile, contributor to that effort,
arresting several suspected al Qaeda operatives and turning
them over to the Central Intelligence Agency. After the
October 2002 bombings of two crowded nightclubs in the
holiday resort of Bali, Indonesian police stepped up
operations against indigenous terrorist groups.

To be sure, the sudden U.S. presence in Sumatra, has
stirred some unease. Still, Anwar Nur Siregar, chief of the
northern Sumatra chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's
largest Muslim organization, said he's prepared to give the
U.S. and its allies the benefit of the doubt.

"Their record isn't good when it comes to dealing with
Muslim countries and there could be some ulterior motive,"
he said. "But when people come to give us aid, I would like
to be positive and we are telling our members that they
should look at this positively."

--Michael M. Phillips in Washington, Leslie Lopez in Medan,
Indonesia, and Kate Linebaugh in Banda Aceh, Indonesia,
contributed to this article.



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