The Foreign Service Journal, September 2008

have to prove anything about terrorism, so we shouldn’t mind what they accuse us of,” she says. Retired General Agus Widjojo helps to explain this notion. During President Bush’s first term, he points out, the pressure to conform with the U.S. national interest in the war on terrorism was so great that it sometimes violat- ed the very democratic practices Washington espouses. One such case was when Indonesian intelligence appre- hended suspected al-Qaida terrorist Omar Al-Farouq and turned him over to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in a clandestine operation in January 2002. Al-Farouq was flown to the U.S. military’s Baghram Base in Afghanistan, from which he escaped five years later. Widjojo says such acts, undertaken without the involvement of the police, are no longer acceptable in the newly democratic Indonesia, because the people hate to see their government bending to Washington’s wishes. “We are no longer an authoritarian regime. It should be difficult to pressure us to do something like that,” he adds. Some government insiders believe it is better for the Americans to play a low-profile role; otherwise, the issue will only exacerbate the anti-American sentiments already prevalent in Indonesian society. “The more they try to push, the more resistance they will get,” says one palace official, speaking on condition of anonymity. A Careful Balancing Act Pres. Yudhoyono has been very careful in balancing the people’s emotion and his administration’s interests in pur- suing a partnership with the U.S. “Our relations have been excellent, with Washington taking a pro-Indonesian stand since the birth of the reform era,” says Dino Patti Djalal, the president’s spokesman on foreign affairs. However, Djalal declines to say whether he favors Obama or McCain and talks instead about the overall relationship. “Whoever replaces Bush must be able to retain that stance and demonstrate an ability to exercise nuanced diplomacy.” That means an ability to respect the complexity of the relationship, instead of focusing on just one single issue. F O C U S S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 43