Ground set for significant improvement in Indonesia-US ties

The Jakarta Post, Wed, 03/18/2009 2:32 PM

There is no doubt that the relationship between Indonesia and the United States will improve significantly considering President Barack Obama's personal ties to Indonesia. But one should not forget that the United States-Indonesia Society (USINDO) was working hard throughout the last eight years under President George W. Bush to amend relations while they were far from perfect.

Ed Masters, USINDO founder, said the organization continued its efforts throughout that period to improve ties between the third and fourth largest countries in the world.

"If we cooperate together, we can have a more important impact on world affairs," Masters said. He and his wife Allene are in Jakarta for a USINDO meeting, his last visit to Indonesia in his capacity as co-chair of the board of trustees. On Wednesday, he will hand over the position to former ambassador Stapleton Roy. He spoke with The Jakarta Post about the US-Indonesia relationship and USINDO's work. Here are excerpts:

Question: Where is the US-Indonesia relationship heading now?

Answer: With Obama as president, I see tremendous opportunity for improvement in strengthening our relationship. In their phone conversation this weekend, Obama replied to President Yudhoyono's initiative for a partnership between the two countries.

USINDO will play a "track two" NGO role, and we hold a conference in Washington in April bringing experts from Indonesia and the United States to discuss what the two countries might do in the field of global warming, environmental matters, sustainable agriculture, education and so forth. These are issues in which the two countries should have been working closer together.

Did relations suffer during the eight years of President Bush?

There was a huge setback. I was sad to see then that the US reputation globally, including in Indonesia, deteriorated very rapidly. But I was glad we had USINDO as a private organization working together with people here to keep ties strong in the field of education among others to supplement what was happening with the two governments.

So how do you envision the relationship four years from now?

The relationship will be more normal. We won't have problems like the Iraq War dividing us. We will be able to work much closer together on matters of mutual interest. Both countries are very deeply committed to expanding educational opportunities and that is something USINDO has worked on for a long time.

These are the third and fourth largest countries in the world, both very diverse and both very important. If we cooperate together we can have a more important impact on world affairs.

Suspicion of the United States meddling in Indonesia's domestic affairs still undermine this relationship. Do you think it will ever go away?

It will in time. There is no question that the CIA was involved in the 1957-1958 rebellion, but the US was accused wrongly of being involved in the Gestapu affair *abortive communist coup* in 1965.

Indonesia can deal with its problems by itself very well, like the way it handled the communist problem in the 1960s and the way it forced the end of Soeharto's authoritarian rule. Today, Indonesia is a thriving democracy and again they achieved that on their own. It wasn't imposed from outside.

Some people say that because of our vast differences, relations between Indonesia and the United States at best can be cordial but never warm. Do you agree?

I don't. They were warm when I was ambassador from 1977 to 1981. That was a very good period, we were working very closely together mostly on economic matters. Relations were warm even earlier than that. I was here from 1964 to 1968 as counselor at the US Embassy, and I was director of Indonesia in the State Department between 1968 and 1970. During that time, we worked very closely with Indonesia on rescheduling the debt that had been accumulated under President Sukarno and on the formation of an aid consortium group. The period from the late 1960s to late 1980s was one of very close cooperation, there were very few problems in our relationship, some rather small economic and trade issues, but no big political problems.

As you got towards the late 1980s, East Timor became a serious problem, and we had the *military* sanctions and the Leahy Amendments. There was a period from then until the resignation of Soeharto that relations were not close.

You founded USINDO in 1994 with the objective of improving understanding between the two countries. Have you accomplished that?

Partly. The understanding is better, I can't take credit for the election of Barack Obama and he will have a much greater impact on bilateral relationships. But we worked with members of the US Congress, private groups, educational institutions, information media, just to better inform the American people about the importance of Indonesia. USINDO achieved significant results, but there is still a lot to be done. Americans still don't know as much about Indonesia as they should, some of them confuse it with Bali, with Indochina and with radical Islam.

Now there is an opportunity for a tremendous improvement in the relationship and Barack Obama will help open that up.

Any last words before leaving USINDO?

I've been associated with Indonesia on and off for 45 years. Indonesia has been an important part of my life and my families' life. We have warm and close friends who we will miss. We have great respect and admiration for the country. Indonesia has achieved a lot, with some outside help, but I think Indonesia has done it on its own.

You will still return to Indonesia though?

It's a long trip and I am going to turn 85 soon. Whether I am coming back or not, I don't know, but my wife and I would like to. We have so many memories here, we have friends here, our daughter graduated from the Jakarta International School, our son was born in 1968 while we were here on our first tour.

I wouldn't rule out that we may come back on a personal basis.