http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GA11Ae02.html
The not so ugly Americans By Bill Guerin JAKARTA - The characterization of the Ugly American, from the 1958 international best-selling novel of the same name, which has stuck to Americans ever since the book's release, may be put to rest in Indonesia's tsunami-devastated Aceh province, from where Islam spread across the archipelago. More than 16,000 kilometers from Washington, US military crews are flying more than 100 helicopter sorties a day, ferrying food, water and medicine to mostly Muslim victims in the province from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. This is only one of many ironies that have sprung up in the aftermath of the killer waves that struck the island on December 26. The command ship is anchored a 10-minute helicopter flight away from Aceh, in the adjacent Malacca Strait, the 900-kilometer waterway separating the Malay Peninsula from Singapore and Indonesia that carries half the world's oil. Last April the Pentagon was pressing Indonesia and Malaysia to agree to allow US marines and Special Forces to patrol the narrow but vital channel. The two nations strenuously objected, with Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak claiming that US counter-terrorism forces in the region would fuel Islamic fanaticism. Indonesia's chief foreign-affairs spokesman, Marty Natalegawa, then warned, "You cannot arm yourselves to the teeth and expect that will lead of itself to a sense of security. You have to work with the region to share in a sense of security." But in Aceh, Americans now have been welcomed with unstinting gratitude, notwithstanding tacit admissions by the United States that the aid is part and parcel of its "war on terror". Last week Natalegawa said, "The very prompt and substantial US response ... has not only further confirmed what we knew all along in terms of the robust and the very close relationship between the two countries, but has also further enhanced the relationship." The positive reaction to the US aid program is even encouraging the idea espoused by the United States' 34th president, Dwight D Eisenhower, that America's foreign aid could be just as important in fighting "wars" as its military might. While communist imperialism was the terror in Eisenhower's day, the devastating September 11, 2001, attacks on the US saw terrorism become the new enemy that shaped America's foreign policy. "Why do they hate us?" President George W Bush asked in his speech to Congress two weeks after September 11. He was referring to the 19 men who hijacked four US passenger jets and flew them into the World Trade Center towers on suicide missions that left nearly 3,000 dead. All the men were from the Middle East and most were later identified as Muslims. The United States' ensuing campaign against terrorism, its staunch support of Israel, the offensive in Afghanistan and the invasion and occupation of Iraq have been widely interpreted elsewhere as anti-Islam. Days before US B-52s dropped bombs in Afghanistan, Indonesian sociologist and talk-show host Imam Budi Prasodjo said, "Now America is ready with its airplanes to bomb this poor nation, and most people here don't like arrogance. You are a superpower, you are a military superpower, and you can do whatever you want. People don't like that, and this is dangerous." The Ugly American encouraged Eisenhower to reconsider the success of international aid efforts by the US, and in his 1958 State of the Union Address he warned Congress, "We could make no more tragic mistake than merely to concentrate on military strength. For if we did only this, the future would hold nothing for the world but an 'Age of Terror'." A poll late last year showed that only 15% of Indonesians had a good word to say about the United States. But ironically, with 113,306 of its people now dead, Indonesia, the most populous of the world's 50 or so Muslim countries, is more than happy to see the Stars and Stripes fluttering on its sovereign territory. Images of a weeping man in Aceh crying out "Where is America?" were beamed around the world earlier, along with gut-wrenching images of bloated bodies floating in pools of debris. Choppered in to see the scale of the disaster for himself, Secretary of State Colin Powell might also have appreciated the irony: the difference between his flying visits to Baghdad and this latest was that this time he was meeting US serviceman on the ground who were committed to helping save Muslim lives, not directly or indirectly involved in the taking of such lives. Powell suggested that the influx of US aid could help remove discontent that has fueled terrorism in the region. "We believe it [US aid] is in the best interests of 'those countries' and its in our best interests and dries up these pools of dissatisfaction which might give rise to terrorist activity." His comments are similar in many ways to a promise made by Eisenhower 45 years before: "I say once more, to all peoples, that we will always go the extra mile with anyone on Earth if it will bring us nearer a genuine peace." More than 700 Muslims, about 500 of whom were women and children, died in Fallujah, the "city of mosques", after an all-out assault by US forces in November. But in Aceh, which also has an enormous Muslim presence, the expeditionary US force is going the last mile in the noble cause of immediate humanitarian assistance and support. Softening America's go-it-alone image is an uphill task in a world that is fast losing its respect for Washington. But the aim is to persuade Muslims, not difficult-to-convince Europeans. After all, the majority of the victims of the tsunami were Muslims. According to Powell, "We'd be doing it [providing aid] regardless of religion, but I think it does give the Muslim world and the rest of the world an opportunity to see American generosity, American values in action." A barrage of criticism over Bush's decision to remain on his Texas ranch for three days after the catastrophe prompted the president to say, "The greatest source of America's generosity is not our government. It's the heart of the American people." After realizing that the opportunity for a spontaneous, instantaneous and magnificent US response from Day 1 had escaped him, Bush quickly press-ganged former presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush Sr into the worthy cause of persuading Americans to part with their money to help the distressed souls on the other side of the world. Face-to-face with radicals Yet the three presidents may face a harder sell to their people than to the global Muslim community if the buildup of home-grown Indonesian radicals outstrips the deployment of US troops on the ground in Aceh. With exquisite ill timing, CNN aired a photograph of an Indonesian man receiving a US aid package - while proudly sporting an Osama bin Laden T-shirt. But there are more ominous sources of anathema to Americans than T-shirts. The obsessively anti-American Laskar Mujahidin, who are equally obsessed with turning Indonesia into an Islamic state by implementing Islamic law, or Sharia, throughout the country, have set up camp at the Blang Bintang military airport in the Aceh capital, Banda Aceh. Laskar Mujahidin is the paramilitary wing of the hardline Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), which has been linked several times to the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), itself linked to al-Qaeda and listed by the United Nations and the US State Department as a terrorist organization. Its alleged spiritual leader is Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who is on trial in Jakarta on charges that he sanctioned the suicide truck-bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2003 as well as the 2002 bombing on the resort island of Bali. More than 200 Laskar Mujahidin members have joined other aid organizations at four posts, all within spitting distance of scores of other volunteers, both local and international. "Mujahidin" literally translates from the original Arabic as "struggler", someone who engages in jihad or "struggle", although it is now mainly translated as "holy warrior". But leader Salman Alfarizi, sitting beneath a home-made sign that reads "Islamic Law Enforcement", told an interviewer: "We are not here to fight, we've come to help. We've got no problem with the foreigners as long as they have no hidden agenda." The chief of the Indonesian military's information task force in Aceh, Colonel Ahmad Yani, apparently agrees, as does Coordinating Minister for Welfare Alwi Shihab. "I am not concerned at all," said Shihab. "These are people who have traveled a great distance in order to help their fellow citizens in Aceh." Whether the radicals have a hidden agenda is another question. Paramilitaries of the Pemuda Panca Marga (PPM), a Jakarta-based youth group, are reported to be driving around Banda Aceh chanting nationalist slogans. Meanwhile, Hilmy Bakar Almascaty, a leader of the radical Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), was quoted as saying, "We are very close friends with the military and they have been assisting our efforts to help the Acehnese people by bringing us on their airplanes. I expect we will be here for a very long time." The hardline Hizbut Tahrir, thought to be behind most demonstrations against US foreign policy in Indonesia, has even set up a camp next door to the governor's mansion. Abdulla Puteh, the current governor, is in jail in Jakarta on corruption charges. Assistant US secretary of state James Kelly had a message for the radical Islamic groups, issuing a statement on Saturday that the deployment of troops to Indonesia is purely on humanitarian grounds, with no ulterior motive. Indonesian military spokesman Major-General Syafrie Syamsuddin called a weekend press conference to issue a denial to rumors that the Americans would exploit their humanitarian role in the crisis to establish a long-term military presence in Indonesia. "They are merely dealing with a humanitarian operation, not a military one," Syamsuddin said. On the same day, US Pacific Command officials reported that the US military had 12,633 soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen providing relief support. This number includes nearly 11,000 servicemen afloat aboard 19 navy ships and a coast-guard cutter, and nearly 1,800 on the ground in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia. Collectively, they have delivered more than 1.8 million tonnes of relief supplies, more than 61,000 liters of water, nearly 200,000 kilograms of food, and 1.35 million tonnes of non-medical supplies. Still ugly to some But for others, Americans are still ugly. Jordanian columnist Aida al-Najjar wrote in the daily ad-Dustour that America was exploiting "the suffering of people" to try to improve its image. The Swiss daily Tribune de Geneve was quick to point out that America's initial allocation of $15 million was less than it spends every minute in its war in Iraq. That war in is now costing $4 billion a month, and Washington has so far pledged only $350 million to help the dozen countries hit by the giant waves. Still, it has scored over oil-rich Persian Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, which have been accused of doing far too little for its Muslim brothers in Southeast Asia. Despite huge windfalls from soaring oil prices, Riyadh, which has funded terrorist groups to the tune of hundreds of millions, gave only an initial $10 million - though this was later trebled to $30 million. Media criticism of the US is one thing, but when US Republicans started to describe their government's "core countries" initiative for coordinating the world's biggest recovery operation through a US-led "core group", along with Japan, Australia and India, as a "second coalition of the willing", alarm bells went off in European capitals. Although Asian, European and US leaders agreed in Jakarta last Thursday that the United Nations should take control, this was not before the US initiative had been condemned as yet another effort to marginalize the UN through an Iraqi invasion-style coalition where the US would call all the shots. A new wave of understanding? So will the remote war-torn province of Aceh go down in history not only as the worst-hit region of the most dramatic natural disaster of modern times, but also as the turning point for a new wave of understanding between Islam and the West? Even Samuel Huntington in his "clash of civilizations" hypothesis emphasized the hope that the West and Islam could find ways to co-exist peacefully. As he wrote in his book, "In the final analysis ... all civilizations will have to learn to tolerate each other." The title The Ugly American is deliberately ironic, yet the phrase is often invoked to embody America's incompetent, heavy-handed foreign policy. Will US aid efforts in a devastated region the UN calls Indonesia's "ground zero" bring to an end the widespread perceptions that the United States is becoming aggressively insular, xenophobic and strident toward the rest of the world? Yes, thinks Arizona Republican Jeff Flake. "I don't know how it could not" help the relationship, said Flake, one of seven US senators who were in Banda Aceh on Saturday to see the aid effort for themselves. "I saw Mormon missionaries and Muslims side by side unloading relief supplies. It's a sight to behold. These things will have a lasting impact." American military men and women providing disaster relief in the Indian Ocean "are showing the courage and compassion of our nation to the world", just as they do "in so many other places", Bush said on Friday during his weekly radio address. US concerns that Saudi Arabia, Iran and radical groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah would throw money at Indonesia to gain a bigger foothold there, thus making the war on terror vastly more difficult, were singularly unfounded. But deploying highly visible US troops risks making them sitting ducks for al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah and other jihadi terrorist organizations. "The [Indonesian] military commander has ordered a high alert because there may be infiltration from people who don't like to see the presence of foreigners here," Coordinating Minister for Welfare Shihab warned on Saturday. "We call on our countrymen who still have prejudices towards foreigners to avoid prompting things which will only hurt the Acehnese." Bill Guerin, a weekly Jakarta correspondent for Asia Times Online since 2000, has worked in Indonesia for 19 years in journalism and editorial positions. He has been published by the BBC on East Timor and specializes in business/economic and political analysis in Indonesia. (Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) Open purses have strings attached (Jan 7, '05) Tsunamis won't stop jihadis (Jan 6, '05) Military offensive hinders aid to Aceh (Jan 5, '05) Aceh feels the fallout (Jan 4, '05) ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? 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