Friday, February 20, 2009

Hillary postmortem: Indonesia as 'cornerstone'

Off she goes, to put out other diplomatic fires around the globe. Iran's nascent nuclear program, North Korea's usual swaggering, all converging at once, as if the world didn't have enough to deal with.

But before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton departed Jakarta, she helped write a new chapter in U.S.-Indonesia relations. Long-dormant mutual interests are being revived, with Indonesia free of all the old Suharto associations that had chilled relations initially, and the U.S. free of the unilateralist course it charted over the last eight years.

In fact many are citing Indonesia as a "cornerstone" of new-and-improved American foreign policy, both a symbol (of Muslim rapprochement) and a gathering force in population and resources. The question, then: Will Indonesia seize this historic moment, and come to the fore to exhibit leadership and moral principle, bringing disparate nations together? Or will it recede into its own messiness and complexities, content to let other countries take the lead?


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4 comments:

Akhyari said...

There two major obstacles in seizing the momentum. One is because our leaders are not really engage with global trend, they tend to find ways to save their assess in upcoming election. Secondly, our media (TVs), are still playing usual, stupid mocking at everything, and throw sensations.

Akhyari said...

There two major obstacles in seizing the momentum. One is because our leaders are not really engage with global trend, they tend to find ways to save their assess in upcoming election. Secondly, our media (TVs), are still playing usual, stupid mocking at everything, and throw sensations.

Christopher Taylor said...

They should start thinking more broadly, and believe that they're worthy of leadership ... if there's one thing the world is hungry for, it's sensible leadership in insane times ...

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