US to offer Indonesia a new partnership

US to offer Indonesia a new partnership
Tom Allard HERALD Correspondent
November 9, 2010

JAKARTA: Barack Obama arrives in Indonesia today anxious to broaden the relationship with the emerging regional power that has been hailed as a rare exemplar of democracy in south-east Asia.

Mr Obama spent four years of his childhood living in Jakarta. The 24-hour visit with his wife, Michelle, is his first to Indonesia in almost 40 years.

A warm reception seems assured and polling has indicated that Mr Obama's elevation to the presidency has transformed sentiment in Indonesia towards the US.

Advertisement: Story continues below A survey by the Pew Research Centre found that, after Mr Obama's election in 2008, positive views among Indonesians about the US leapt from 37 per cent to 63 per cent in a year. Seven in 10 respondents in 2009 said Mr Obama would do the ''right thing in world affairs''. The rating of his predecessor, George Bush's, was 23 per cent a year earlier.

Mr Obama's task will be to create lasting diplomatic and economic gains. Since the US backed the dictator Suharto into power in the mid-1960s, it has enjoyed strong ties with Jakarta, notwithstanding its decision to withdraw some military co-operation 12 years ago due to human rights abuses by Indonesia's armed forces.

That co-operation was restored this year but, in the meantime, Indonesia has extended its search for allies as it pursues its foreign policy of ''no enemies, a thousand friends''.

Through the Association of South-East Asian Nations Indonesia has signed a free trade deal with China. Its economic relationship with the US, meanwhile, has stagnated.

The number of Indonesian students going to the US has halved to just 7000 in the past decade.

The expected signing of a ''comprehensive partnership'' and student exchange program will tackle both shortcomings. Mr Obama is also expected to make a keynote address on Islam at the University of Indonesia, which will expand on themes canvassed in his historic address in Cairo last year.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa, said the relationship must be one of ''true partners'', highlighting Indonesia's pivotal role as a bridge between China and the US, and its commitment to ''promoting open regionalism''.

Mr Obama and his Indonesian counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, know each other's countries well. Mr Obama's time at elementary school in Jakarta and his half-Indonesian sister are well known.

Less so are Dr Yudhoyono's studies in the US, three stints at military colleges at Fort Benning and Fort Leavenworth, and a business degree from Webster University.

He once observed: ''I love the United States, with all its faults. I consider it my second country.''


smh.com.au