Historic Asia visit: a reflection

Hillary Clinton is scheduled to visit East Asian countries including China, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia. This will be her first overseas trip as the US Secretary of State. 

It is interesting that the US chose Indonesia as a destination to demonstrate its foreign policy in Southeast Asia. It can be seen that the superpower  is seeing Indonesia as a representative for the whole region. 

But why Indonesia? 

Of course, Barack Obama's childhood in Indonesia may be a factor. There is a personal link between the new US President and Southeast Asia. Or in other words, it made the US approach this region easier. 

But I don't think it is an important point.  

Lest not forget some facts about Indonesia. It is the world's largest Muslim-majority nation. Indonesian Muslims comprise of 15 per cent of the total Islam population in the world. This is a crucial point; the US under Obama would have to approach Muslim countries for talks and develop trade partnership. It cannot pursue a preemptive attitude like it once was under Mr.Bush. So where is the better place if not Indonesia? A tight relationship with Indonesia show the Middle-East that the US is willing to negotiate with any Muslim nations. This is for the sake of neo-liberalism, unfortunately. 

Moreover, let's consider Indonesia's performance since the economic bust in 1997. Among countries in Southeast Asia, Thailand and Indonesia were to two most severely hit by the crisis. However, ten years later, Indonesia under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono improved considerably well.  The conflict between religions seems to decrease. Even though he is struggling to gain real power in the administration, Yudhoyono seems to do well in his office. Compare to countries in the region, Indonesia is seen as the most promising.

P.S. It's the Shan's National Day on Saturday. 

Conflict within religion

Has anyone finished reading Ricklefs' "Polarising Javanese Society"? It would be great to hear people giving comments on it. I haven't finished the book, but interested in his main argument posing a question on the conflict within Javanese Islamic communities.

This argument is interesting especially in the current world, where lights are shed only on the religious conflict without realizing that sometime conflicts between religions are not as serious as the conflict among the believers of the same thing.

Let's talk about it.

P.S. Can anyone please recommend blogs or websites on Southeast Asian literature?

Which road it leads to?

The election result from Malaysia makes me think of what's going on in Indonesia.

If anyone can remember, in Nov 2007, Indonesia won the Democracy Awards from International Association of Political Consultants (IAPC) for its progress toward democracy for the past nine years. An interesting thing is, usually this award will be given to individuals e.g.Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, etc. But this time, it is given to the entire nation!

Yeah, since its independence in 1945, this might be the time that can be called the 'calmest' period so far. But the diversity and, especially, the uneaqual policies from the state could possibly lead to a grave situation.

In Indonesia, Shariah Law could create fractions among the people. Even though 90 per cent of the population is muslims, but the majority of people are moderate, not fundamental. Is it a time to reconsider since not that many poeple are recieving a benefit form it?

In Malaysia, Bhumi-Putra policy stemmed from biases against the other races. But it was understandable from the context in history.

But at present, isn't it the time to reconsider? Isn't the election result starting to prove something?

So, what are these policies lead to?

I hope the answer is peace.

Ps. Irawaddy magazine had an interview with "Ad Carabao", a famouse Thai singer, on his support to free Shan State here.