Foreign policy controversy and what's expected
Published : Clarion Newspaper
U.S.
elections from an Indonesian perspective
Sylvia
Lim, a Madison College student from Indonesia studying journalism
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Source : Public Domain by VOA |
The
U.S. presidential election is the center of attention right now, not
only for U.S citizens, but also for international media because U.S.
foreign policies are far reaching and powerful players on the world
stage. The Indonesia-U.S. connection is critical. It deserves
attention and it deserves clear policy direction in this election.
But is that what U.S. voters are getting? Is that what the world is hearing? For many of us from Indonesia who are paying close attention to the debates and other discourse, a vote for Mitt Romny in the president election could spell a step backwards in U.S.-Indonesia relations and create a ripple effect in the world.
According
to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the number of American visa
applications by Indonesian has increased by one-third. These direct,
person-to-person ties are critical to deepening the friendship
between America and Indonesian people. “That is something President
Obama is personally very committed to, based on his own
relationships,” Clinton said when she addressed the third annual
U.S.-Indonesian Joint Commission Meeting.
Ali
Salmande Harahap, a law journalist from Jakarta said, “Although I
am Indonesian, I don’t care about Obama’s background, when he
spent his childhood in Indonesia. I just want to see his
international policy objectively.”
“Obama
uses a dialogue approach in his foreign policy. He tries to start a
dialogue between the west and Moslem majority countries,” Harahap
said. “It was different with the Republican foreign policy that I
saw in the George W. Bush era which resulted in horrible wars. I see
Romney as not different from George W. Bush.”
Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney has, in a recent presidential
debate, admitted that America needs to strengthen relationships with
partners like India and influential countries like Indonesia.
“Our
objective is not to build an anti-China coalition. Rather it is to
strengthen cooperation among countries with which we share a concern
about China’s growing power and increasing assertiveness and with
whom we also share an interest in maintaining freedom of navigation
and ensuring that disputes over resources are resolved by peaceful
means. It is yet another way of closing off China’s option of
expanding its influence through coercion,” Romney said on his
campaign website.
But
the statements are confusing. Romney doesn't want to “build an
anti-China coalition” but favors ways of “closing off China.”
It’s these mixed messages that are leaving the world confused about
his true intentions in foreign policy should he be elected president.
Romney
also made a controversial claim when he said that U.S. engagement
with Indonesia in the 1960s would be a good model for how the United
States should engage Pakistan today,
“Look
at Indonesia in the '60s,” he said. “We helped them move toward
modernity.”
But
for many Indonesian people, what Romney refers to as a “good model”
led to the most painful decades in Indonesia history. In 1965,
Indonesia's first president, Sukarno was deposed in a coup. The truth
behind the coup is still hotly debated. General Suharto, supported by
the United States at that time, became Indonesia’s president for 32
years. It came at the cost of military dictatorship, long jail terms
without fair trials and targeted killings. Roughly 500,000
Indonesians were mass murdered in 1966.
The
Indonesian people hope that the U.S. election result will lead to
positive impacts around the world.
Ari
Mustikawati, a journalist from Bali, said she wants the next
president to treat Asian countries as equals and fairly.
“For
example, the contract with Freeport, the biggest gold mining company
in Papua, should be renewed since the existing one gives little
benefit to the Indonesian government and the local community in
Papua, which finally triggered unsolvable conflict,” Mustikawati
said.
Eliyan
Umamy, a student from Pierce College, added, “ In the case of
relationship with Asian countries, we can build a better mutual
understanding. Hopefully the next president will spread the spirit of
peace, not war, which means no more military attacks.”
While international
students can’t vote in the U.S. presidential election, we are
watching. The world is watching. There is much at stake. The United
States would do well to re-elect a leader who has a clear direction,
rather than roll the dice and see where they land.
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