A secularist at Indonesia's helm Jane Perlez/NYT Tuesday, September 21, 2004
New president is a details man JAKARTA Indonesia's new president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, commonly known here by the shorthand SBY, moved swiftly up the military ranks during the authoritarian rule of Suharto and then played a backseat role in the undoing of the regime. He is considered to be a steady hand, a broadly educated man who many here believe is the first person with a suitable background and sufficient training to become president since the democratic transition began six years ago. . But there is also much that is unknown about him, particularly on the critical issues of terrorism and Islam. He supports the secular tradition of Indonesia. But it remains unclear how he will deal with the thorny question of Islam and terror, a subject that until now the government and Muslim groups have remained largely silent on. . With more than half the votes counted after Monday's election, results showed that Yudhoyono won a convincing victory over the incumbent, Megawati Sukarnoputri. With more than 77 million votes counted by Tuesday evening, Yudhoyono had won 60 percent and Megawati had 39 percent, according to the Indonesian election commission. . In contrast to Megawati, who took little interest in government but reveled in the pomp of being head of state, Yudhoyono will immerse himself in details, and is likely to play down the role of singular leader, an army colleague said. . "He believes in the organization," said the colleague, Agus Widjojo, a former general who was Yudhoyono's boss in the military. "He's aware that he's only one element in the decision-making process." . The former general added, "He doesn't come from one of those charismatic, hero styles of leadership." . Yudhoyono stayed closeted Tuesday at his home in Bogor, outside Jakarta. . The general faces a bundle of big problems: one of the worst-performing economies in the vibrant Asian region, rampant corruption and a homegrown terror network that the police say could be poised for another attack. . As coordinating minister for security under Megawati, he was more outspoken than many in the government on the threat of terror and the nature of Jemaah Islamiyah, the radical Islamic group that has been blamed for three terrorist attacks in the last two years. . But he was reluctant to push for more stringent measures against the terrorist group, a Western official who dealt with him said. Now that he is to become president, he needs to put his caution aside and not find reasons not to act, the official said. . Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, 55, was born in Pacitan, a small town in East Java. "A nice clean little town," said an American friend, Dennis Heffernan, publisher of the Van Zorge Report, who accompanied the general on some recent campaign swings. . After emerging top of his class in the Military Academy in 1973, Yudhoyono was selected to go to the United States for military training in 1976 at Fort Benning, Georgia. . This was at the height of the rosy relationship between the United States and the Suharto regime, which was viewed in Washington as a bulwark against communism in Southeast Asia. He was selected a second time in 1990 for a year-long course at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. . In part because of these two substantial stints in the United States, the Bush administration viewed Yudhoyono as the best pick of the candidates. . The general wants the program renewed and a full resumption of military relations with the United States, Widjojo, his former boss, said. The training program was stopped more than a decade ago after the Clinton administration objected to human rights abuses by the Suharto military. . By the mid 1990s, Yudhoyono apparently believed that the rot in the Suharto regime had gone too far. . In concert with some like-minded reform colleagues, including Widjojo, he began to work on a plan that called for the military to step back from its upfront role in civilian affairs. "He was there in the initial steps of reform," Widjojo said. . As the crisis around Suharto's presidency escalated in 1998, Yudhoyono began meeting with one of Indonesia's prominent Muslim leaders, Nurcholish Madjid, to find a way for Suharto to resign. According to an account in the book "Indonesian Destinies" by Theodore Friend, Yudhoyono was among those who discussed "a peaceful, graceful resignation process" with Madjid. . In a less flattering light, Friend describes how Yudhoyono encouraged a group of Muslim and Christian leaders to look into the bombing of dozens of churches across Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2000. . According to the book, the general acknowledged that the facts of the bombings implicated some "former colleagues and superiors" of his own. But when the group submitted a draft decree to investigate the matter, the author says Yudhoyono declined to pursue the matter. . >From his bookshelves, it is clear that the general prefers serious reading peppered >with a splash of light fare. "Debt of Honor" by Tom Clancy and "The World's Most >Dangerous Places" by Robert Young Pelton are among the books in his library. . "On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War" by Harry Summers and "Napoleon: How He Did It: The Memoirs of Baron Fain, First Secretary of the Emperor's Cabinet" by Agathon-Jean Fran�ois are also there. . The New York Times [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. 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