Gets warm reception in Indonesia
Ap, Afp, Jakarta
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton moved yesterday to boost US ties with the world’s most populous Muslim nation and its neighbours, pledging a new American willingness to work with and listen to Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia.
Her message was received warmly by officials in Jakarta, the childhood home of President Barack Obama, although small and scattered protests were held in several cities, with some Islamic hard-liners setting tires on fire and others throwing shoes at caricatures of Hillary.
She said her choice of Asia for her first overseas trip as Obama’s top diplomat was “no accident” and a sign of the new administration’s desire for broader and deeper relations with the continent on regional and global issues.
Hillary, who arrived from a stop in Japan and will head today to South Korea and China, was particularly effusive about Indonesia, which she said deserved praise for its hard-won multiethnic democracy and efforts to fight terrorism while respecting human rights
She tapped Indonesia — as a democratic and mainly Muslim country — for a key role in the Obama administration’s new commitment to “smart power.”
“Building a comprehensive partnership with Indonesia is a critical step on behalf of the United States’ commitment to smart power,” she told a press conference here alongside Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda.
She said it was important “to listen as well as talk to those around the world, to support a country that has demonstrated so clearly… that Islam, democracy and modernity cannot only coexist but thrive together.”
In her first visit to a Muslim country as secretary of state, The US secretary of state said President Barack Obama “wants to reach out to the entire world” and Indonesia would be an important partner in that effort.
She announced plans to restart Peace Corps programmes in Indonesia that were suspended in 1965 when volunteers were expelled after leftists accused them of espionage. And she said the two countries would cooperate on climate change, trade, education, regional security and a host of other issues, while indicating that more development aid was on the way.
While in Jakarta, Hillary intends to announce plans to step up US engagement with Southeast Asia, stressing the growing importance of a region that often felt slighted by the Bush administration.
Her two-day schedule in Indonesia includes a visit to the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretariat and she is likely to signal US intent to sign the regional bloc’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. Hillary will also pledge to attend the group’s annual foreign ministers meeting in Thailand this year, US officials said.
Development and climate change also will top the agenda during her meetings with Indonesian leaders, along with the Iranian nuclear dispute and the war in Afghanistan.
Indonesia is the world’s most populous Islamic nation, and it has personal ties for President Barack Obama, who spent four years of his childhood here. Among those who turned out at the airport to welcome Hillary were 44 children from his former elementary school, singing traditional folks songs and waving Indonesian and US flags.
During Clinton’s first stop in Japan, her two days of talks focused mostly on North Korea’s belligerent rhetoric and threats of a missile test, and on the global financial crisis. After 24 hours in Indonesia, she travels to South Korea and China, where Pyongyang will again likely be a major topic.
But in Tokyo on Tuesday, Hillary previewed the new approach to dialogue she will try out in Southeast Asia. During a town hall student meeting, she said that the United States was under new management.
“America is ready to listen again,” she said. “Too often in the recent past, our government has not heard the different perspectives of people around the world. In the Obama administration, we intend to change that.”
Later, in response to a student question about the Bush administration’s perceived “prejudice” against Muslims in the war on terrorism, Hillary lamented that America’s failure to communicate its intentions with the world is “one of the central security challenges we face.”
She also acknowledged that the task had gotten harder because of the hugely unpopular war in Iraq, which she supported as a senator, but came to oppose. That conflict, she said, was “viewed as wrong by many in the world.”
“I think that the war on Iraq made our argument more difficult because although they just had peaceful elections, as you know, that they never would have had under Saddam Hussein, the process was extremely controversial,” Hillary said.
Still, she stressed, the administration would not shy from the topic.
“I think you will see from President Obama and those of us in his administration a concerted effort to present a different position to the Islamic world without in any way stopping our efforts to prevent terrorism,” Hillary said.
Courtesy of www.thedailystar.net
