Discourse: Obama or McCain, RI and U.S. should look forward

Mon, 09/08/2008 10:52 AM | Headlines

With the Nov. 4 U.S. presidential election fast approaching, Indonesians have been taking greater interest, especially because one of the main presidential candidates, Barack Obama, lived in Indonesia during his childhood. U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Cameron R. Hume talked to The Jakarta Post's Abdul Khalik last week about the importance of the election and how the election result will affect U.S.-Indonesia relations. Below are excerpts from the interview:

Question: How is this upcoming election different from the previous election?
Answer: This is a storybook election. There is a sense that we're at a moment of considerable change within our society. Some people claimed that the last such moment was in 1980. So the first thing is that this is an important election.

Secondly, I think that previously you always had a debate, with people saying "I don't want to vote for him, I don't like him, but I don't like the other one either." But I think this year both of the candidates are somewhat special, and we will prefer one candidate over the other eventually. But so far, people seem to be emphasizing the positive aspects of the candidates -- their personalities or their approach in politics -- not the negative aspects.

Most of the Indonesian public has been fascinated with Obama's candidacy and expressed hope that he become the president, expecting that the U.S. under his administration will have a better relationship with Indonesia. How do you see this?

Well, I think there has been an enormous improvement and strengthening of relations between our two countries in the last eight years. So from the U.S. side, that's not a subject of controversy.

I think understandably, you know, Mr. Obama went to school in this neighborhood, so it's not surprising that he's a local favorite. But I have to tell you there are certainly Indonesians I meet who prefer Mr. McCain (Republican candidate John McCain). So it's not universal.

Do you think there will be a significant difference between Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain in terms of U.S.-Indonesia relations?

You know, U.S. relations with Indonesia are not controversial in my country. I think there is a sense of satisfaction that we've been able to make a lot of progress together in the last 10 years. So it's not a subject of argument between the two sides.

Obviously, when we have a new president, that individual and his closest colleagues will make some decisions to do things differently. But it's difficult to identify exactly what it would be.

Are you saying that ideology -- between liberal and conservative -- will not be reflected in foreign policy?

Not directly. I can identify some ideological differences on foreign policy. But I don't see how that relates to views on healthcare, for example.

Obviously, for many of us, Democrats tend to bring up issues of human rights, equality and freedom. If so, many people here are concerned that U.S.-Indonesia relations will not necessarily get better under Obama. What do you think?

Well, the most important thing to remember is that you are not the country you were in 1995. You have a peace agreement in Aceh. You have regional autonomy in Papua. You have a democratic system that wrapped the country, and brought decentralization of powers. You have a military which is reformed and reforming and the police have separated from the military.

Frankly, I don't see those issues coming up in the same way. I just don't. The question would be no matter whether it is McCain or Obama -- and the question for your government -- how the U.S. and Indonesia assess the current progress as a basis for going further, not how we do a u-turn and go back. So the question is what's next?

So what's next for U.S.-Indonesia relations?

We've been approached whether or not we would consider having a defense cooperation agreement such as what you have with some other countries. We're looking at that. I personally think there will be a lot of merit in our agreements in science and technology. We do have a lot of cooperation here. And more cooperation in the environment would be very good.

If the U.S. and Indonesia -- the country with the world's largest population of Muslims -- have good relations, why do many people still think that currently U.S. relations with the Muslim world are at an all-time low?

I've been a U.S. diplomat for a long time. And for as long as I've done this, there's always been concerns that U.S. relations with the Muslim world were not good. Certainly our approach to politics in the Middle East is the main point of challenge between Muslims and the U.S.. I think actually when I started in 1970s the sense of antagonism toward my country from the Muslim countries was worse than it is today.

So, yes, there are points of differences but there are also many things that we cooperate on. We have good relations with many governments within the Muslim world. Yes, we have difficulties but it is mostly based on differences over certain policies.

Talking about global issues, like the Middle East, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, how do the two candidates approach the problems?

I think most of the discussion we have is on the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. To some extent, there was a greater difference of view a year ago. Today, there's more convergence because of the lowering of violence in Iraq and gradual improvement in the situation there.

But if you went back two years ago, Mr. Obama was insistent that we should set a date for withdrawal of our troops in Iraq while Mr. McCain was of the view that we should increase troops there, and ensure that we should prevail in terms of building a democratic Iraq.

Actually, what happened in the last year, there was not an increase in number of troops, the situation was getting better and the number of troops will be decreasing. So the difference between the two is less. I think we have negotiations over troop levels between Washington and Baghdad, and the difference between the dates they have and what Mr. Obama said is not a big deal.

In Afghanistan, the Democrats have been saying that the Bush administration has made a mistake by emphasizing Iraq instead of Afghanistan. If we look at it now, we generally agree that we should be doing more in Afghanistan. The differences in foreign policy are less than a year ago.

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