Indonesian Reassures Asians on Islam
International Herald Tribune
November 8, 1999
Michael Richardson 

As the new president of Indonesia continued a tour of Southeast Asia on Sunday, he carried a message that many countries in the region want to hear: He will strongly oppose any move to turn Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, into an Islamic state.

But in meetings with Southeast Asian leaders, President Abdurrahman Wahid is also making it clear that if secular rule and a tolerant Islam are to prevail in Indonesia, the international community must respond with more generous aid, loans and investment to help the country recover from a devastating recession and prevent the rise of religious extremism.

Indonesian officials said Sunday that Mr. Wahid, a leading Muslim scholar and opposition figure before he was chosen Oct. 20 as head of government in the first democratic contest for the presidency in Indonesia's history, will take a similar message to Washington, where he meets with President Bill Clinton this week.

"We're adamant, persistent, in our view that religion should not be tied to the state at any level," he said in Singapore on Saturday at the start of his first overseas tour since he became president. "Islamic law should not be the law of the land."

Reacting to concerns in Asia and the West that his victory last month with the support of a coalition of Indonesian Muslim parties meant that political Islam was in the ascendant, Mr. Wahid assured a large meeting of foreign diplomats and business executives in Singapore that he had not changed his long-held belief that religion and the state should be kept separate.

He said that Indonesia should continue to be based on acceptance of ethnic and religious diversity, even though Muslims are 88 percent of its 210 million people.

But, he added, "I have to acknowledge that this kind of thinking is shared only by a certain minority."

Analysts said that Indonesia's multireligious neighbors in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, are worried that if Muslims demand a greater role for their faith in politics in Indonesia it will alienate non-Muslim minorities, including the ethnic Chinese who play a key role in the economy, and inspire Muslim radicalism elsewhere in the region.

"Your moderate views on the relationship between religion and the state are recognized and applauded," Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong of Singapore said at a lunch for Mr. Wahid.

"You advocate religious tolerance and racial harmony in consonance with Indonesia's motto — unity within diversity," he continued. "This spirit has served Indonesia well, keeping the country intact and united."

In a further indication of difficulties the new Indonesian leader faces in keeping the country stable and united, the exiled leader of the armed separatist movement in the staunchly Muslim province of Aceh on Sunday ruled out a negotiated settlement of the conflict based on Jakarta's current offer of autonomy for the region.

Mr. Wahid said in Singapore that he had been in contact with Hasan di Tiro, the head of the Free Aceh Movement and that they had agreed to meet as soon as possible.

But Mr. Hasan, who is based in Sweden, said in a statement sent to the International Herald Tribune that he had never had any personal contract with Mr. Wahid.

"We Acehnese have never recognized the Javanese-Indonesian neo-colonialist regime in Jakarta and will always resist any foreign imperialist and neo-colonialist rule until independence is achieved, come what may," Mr. Hasan said.

The recent decision by East Timor in a referendum to separate from Indonesia has strengthened demands for a similar referendum to be held in Aceh and several other parts of the country where some groups have called for independence.

Diplomats said that the United States and Japan, which Mr. Wahid will visit on his way back from Washington, recently told Indonesia that they regard East Timor as a special case and do not support the breakaway of any other parts of the Indonesian archipelago.

Indonesia sits astride international sea-lanes through which about 40 percent of world shipping passes, including vessels carrying 80 percent of Japan's oil supply from the Gulf and U.S. warships moving between the Pacific and Indian Oceans to patrol the Gulf.

In a reassurance to the United States and other Western countries that have provided billions of dollars in loans and aid to Indonesia, Mr. Wahid said that while he wanted to strengthen Indonesia's ties with Asian countries, including China and India, "we must be careful not to sacrifice our relationships with other parts of the world."

He also said that his government was committed to pursue free market principles, attract foreign investment, give equal treatment to ethnic Chinese business, promote the rule of law and root out official corruption.

"Business ethics will be different from now on," Mr. Wahid said. "We will stress honesty, openness and the rule of law."

Malaysia said Saturday after Mr. Wahid met with Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad that it would send an investment mission to Indonesia and support a dollars 200 million loan to Indonesia so that it could buy rice.

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune