Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent visit to Jakarta underscores the importance that the Obama administration appears to attach to Asia and to the U.S. relationship with Indonesia. Indeed, a broad-based, mutually beneficial partnership between the United States and Indonesia can and should be one of the foundations of America's 21st century Asia-Pacific strategy.
But in shaping America's future relationship with that key country, U.S. policymakers should avoid the miscalculations that previously anchored the United States' engagement to Indonesia's anti-democratic, military-dominated elites.
Throughout the Suharto dictatorship and even after his fall, U.S. relations with Indonesia suffered from inadequate attention to creating economic and security ties that improve the lot of the whole of Indonesian society.
For instance, in the past, U.S. economic ties relied too heavily on cheap Indonesian labor, with inadequate attention given to the rights of workers. U.S. investment in Indonesia was also narrowly focused on extractive industries which exploited the archipelago's vast natural resources. While profitable to U.S. investors and their elite Indonesian partners, these investments too often devastated the local environment with ruinous implications.
Forests were destroyed for their timber or to establish oil palm plantations, with no thought to the consequences for the local people for whom those forests constituted homes and a source of livelihood. Massive mining operations poisoned rivers, bays and groundwater. Too often whole communities were displaced in the name of development. Once transferred to another island, their intrusion led to bloody clashes with indigenous populations such as those in West Kalimatan.
The United States has also sought to develop close ties with the Indonesian military through the sale or transfer of weapons, joint training, and senior-level visits. These programs conferred status on senior Indonesian military figures, increasing their chances of promotion. For decades this so-called cooperation was undertaken with no concern for the Indonesian military's problematic record, including ongoing human rights violations, unaccountability before any court, corruption, as well as interference with democracy and insubordination to civilian control.
Too often, U.S. military honors were bestowed on senior officials whose personal records of human rights violations and corruption were widely known within Indonesia. In some instances U.S. support for the Indonesian military rendered the U.S. complicit in war crimes, such as during the invasion and subsequent suppression of East Timor and the less well-known suppression of Papuans.
Beginning in the early 1990s, U.S. cooperation with the Indonesian military was limited, due largely to congressional and public protest as well as the conscientious actions of individuals such as Sen. Patrick Leahy. Most assistance was cut in 1999, during Indonesia's brutal destruction of East Timor following the latter's pro-independence vote, and only gradually restored over the next decade.
Since then, the U.S. government has paid lip-service to human rights concerns by purporting to "vet" individual military personnel slated to receive training. However, the vetting system is ineffective, as shown by a 2005 GAO study.
In response to the threat of terrorism, however, the Bush administration resumed its drive to "partner" with the still-corrupt and unaccountable Indonesian military in 2005. Links between the Indonesian military and terrorist militias, including Islamic fundamentalist ones, did not slow the imperative, which even extended to Indonesia's infamous special forces, the Kopassus.
This effort to build military-to-military relations with an unreformed and unreforming Indonesian military undermined efforts by Indonesians to rein in this rogue institution. The tightening U.S. embrace provided an imprimatur to the Indonesian military that assisted its evasion of real civilian control. Meanwhile, the U.S. has been unwilling to use its resulting leverage to shield those in Indonesia who continue to face intimidation or worse in their efforts to reform the military.
The U.S. is also seeking to expand ties with Indonesia's civilian and military intelligence agencies, BIN and BAIS respectively. Like the Indonesian military, these institutions, led by retired military officials, violate human rights largely with impunity. In 2004, for instance, Indonesia's leading human rights advocate, Said Munir Thalib, was murdered on an international flight. Despite evidence linking the killer to the deputy leader of BIN, that official has not been effectively prosecuted, with several key witnesses inexplicably and suspiciously recanting their testimony.
Cooperation with the Indonesian military and Indonesian intelligence agencies is in the United States' interests. But there is no wisdom in developing partnerships with unreformed institutions. This is particularly the case with regard to the "worst of the worst," the Indonesian special forces.
The U.S. should set specific reform goals against which it will calibrate its cooperation. This was indeed the pledge set forth by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice back in 2005, when she employed a national security waiver to set aside the final Congressional limitations on aid to the Indonesian military. Needless to say, no plan was put forth and the pledge was not honored by the Bush administration.
Any future military-to-military assistance with Indonesia must be informed by the clear understanding of the Indonesian military's human rights record. As for broader economic and investment ties, they should be formulated to benefit more than just the Indonesian elites, and to encourage the democratization of that very important nation.
Edmund McWilliams is a retired senior U.S. Foreign Service Officer who served as the political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta from 1996 to 1999.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Abuse and humiliation of orangutans stopped?
Good news. From March 29 2010 the use of orangutans in circus-like shows in Malaysia has been officially banned. Let us know at once if you see anyone breaking this law....this animal park was caught doing so by Nature Alert.
SHAME ON MALAYSIA
The government owned Melaka Zoo forces this orangutan to take part in degrading and inhumane shows. Note the lack of hair on this orangutan's arms and lower body.
Information is power, when put to good use.
If you find what you see here to be interesting, do you think some of your friends might also like to know more about orangutans?
Please could you invite as many people as you can to visit this blog and subscribe to the news posts? As you can see and read, orangutans need all the help they can get.
Many thanks. Nature Alert
Nine years secured to a three metre chain. Imagine if you will.
"Mely" enjoying fruit supplied by COP and Nature Alert.
Waiting to be rescued
Under lock and chain for at least nine years.
How governments do deals which wreck environments, people and countries
Highly Recommended reading and available from Amazon
Chained up day and night.
But confiscated and rescued by COP in January 2010.
COP to the rescue
The final moments before being released forever from the heavy chain around its neck.
A helping hand
After maybe nine years of being confined to a wooden crate this orangutan is now on the way to a rescue centre and one day back to the forest.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
What changes the world for the better is the passion of certain individuals, not governments, not big organisations.
Highly Recommended Book
Available from Amazon and by far the best book ever written on orangutan conservation.
Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.
Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia. Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007. “In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali. “The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”
Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!
Another palm oil victim - one of tens of thousands - so far.
For a close up of this brutally treated orangutan, please see below.
Mother shot and eaten. Baby beaten and tied to a pole.
The plight of a baby orangutan rescued from a palm oil plantation workers in Borneo has exposed the high price these endangered primates are paying for the production of palm oil. The 2-3 year old female was found hogtied to a pole and had clearly been brutally beaten. Covered in cuts and bruises, she was also severely dehydrated and emaciated after being starved for days or even weeks.
Palm oil kills - no doubt about it.
Villagers protest against palm oil companies.
Tropical forest, home to orangutans etc.
Threatened by palm oil companies.
Saved by COP
Mother murdered by palm oil company
Tortured by palm oil company employees
Rescued and treated by COP, this orangutan has since been released back into a forest.
Palm oil plantation victim
Orphaned by a palm oil company with help from the government of Indonesia.
Indonesia's Alcatraz for orangutans
A living hell for this orangutan.
Guilty of being an orangutan
A prisoner held by the Indonesian government
Shame on the Ministry of Forestry
A life behind bars. Why?
Day after day, 24/7 ..........
A magnificent male orangutan facing life imprisonment behind bars.
Kept prisoner in filth and squalor
Things just go from bad to worse
Solitary confinement .
There can be no excuse for treating an orangutan like this.
Welcome to Indonesia
Where orangutans are incarcerated by the government.
Has this orangutan lost the will to live?
Shame on Minister Kaban
Young orangutan in a 1.5 sq. metre cage 24 hours a day and tormented by zoo visitors.
What future do you think this orangutan has?
How much longer can the Indonesian government carry on abusing and killing orangutans?
Born in the wild.
Life behind bars - where the government of Indonesia prefers to see its orangutans.
Dying for help
With their mothers slaughtered these baby orangutans face a life of torment, torture and hunger, thanks to the government of Indonesia.
Torture chambers for orangutans at an Indonesian zoo
These orangutans have been kept like this for nine months. Until Nature Alert and COP protested the cages were left outside in all weathers.
Solitary confinement courtesy of Indonesian zoo
Caged like this 24/7 for nine months, with no end in sight.
When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........
The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.
"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.
When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right."Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.
Formerly home to orangutans and other wildlife.
Part of the price we all pay for palm oil.
Can you see the rainforest?
No? That's the way the palm oil companies like to see things.
Begging for food - not for fun.
Reduced to begging for food, this orangutan (one of two) is in a unofficial zoo in West Kalimantan. Their enclosure has nothing but bare earth, no protection from a blisteringly hot sun, a concrete tube to shelter/sleep in and no fresh water to drink.
Bored and hungry - for as long as this orangutans lives
Born to be free. Imprisioned for life.
The COP Rapid Response Team
Their arrival in a remote village often generates a lot of interest. Please see July 2008 Blog page for more details..
Saved by COP
Please see July 2008 Blog page for more details.
Mother killed and her baby tied up like this for six months.
We found her at the home of a family who had bought her from her mothers killer. Please see photo immediately below - she is now safe, rescued by COP with the local Forestry Police.
Safe and sound - now
Saved by The Centre for Orangutan Protection and its sponsors/supporters.
Another palm oil victim
Rescued by COP and The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
With its mother killed this orangutan's new owner keeps it chained up.
A baby orangutan with nowhere to go. A mother's love replaced with a chain.
How very, very sad.
What hope is there for this orangutan?
In this small crate there really is an orangutan.
Torture takes many different forms when it comes to dealing with orangutans.
Alone and abused.
Yes. There is an orangutan in this cage.
Chained to, rather than living in a tree.
There's no escape.
At a West Borneo amusement park.
Look at the rubbish this orangutan has to live with.
Escape is not an option.
same as picture below.
Yet another victim of logging and/or palm oil.
Alone, malnourished and very sad in a transit centre.
Palm oil companies take everything.
Imagine; this was once a rainforest.
Five adult orangutans are crammed into this dark, featureless cage in a zoo. All five began life in the wild.
Orphaned by loggers or palm oil companies - often the same thing.
Missing its mother. Look at her eyes and you have to wonder what she is thinking don't you? STOP PRESS this baby has since died.
A little light refreshment goes a long way.
Water melon was always a firm favourite of the orangutans. In all the differnt locations we never once saw fresh drinking water provided.
A Tasty treat
Everywhere we went we took lots of different fresh fruit to give to the hungry orangutans we always discovered in various locations.
Same location as above.
We provided food and some small branches, and they loved both.
Again, the same location
We hope we made him a little happier than he appears. The lives of these two orangutans must be almost unbearable. We hope to arrange their transfer to a rescue centre soon.
West Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo)
Two young orangutans kept at an amusement park. They were wild born. Mothers killed by loggers.
Rescued last year and now at a rehab. centre with an uncertain future.
This baby saw her mother being killed and eaten.
The torture of orangutans is seemingly never ending.
With its left arm chained and padlocked to its neck, this orangutan is literally being tortured at an amusement park in West Kalimantan (Borneo)
Awaiting rescue from what was once its home.
With nowhere left to run, this tranquillized orangutan was rescued and moved to another forest.
Apocalypse now - Indonesian style with help from Malaysian companies.
Rescuers looking for orangutans made homeless by a palm oil company. Virgin rainforest recently stood where there is nothing but a few small trees remaining, which by now will also have been cleared away. Nov. 2007
Yet another palm oil victim
With its mother killed, this baby with an injured eye was caged by workers until rescued by WWF Indonesia.
Illegal loggers in action. October 2007
Access to log these trees illegally was gained via a palm oil plantation road. This forest is home to 50 orangutans and palm oil companies want to log it.
The road to ruin - Indonesia style.
Where once stood a magnificent rainforest full of wildlife.
Mother and baby orangutan.
Oil palm companies have killed thousands like these two.
Palm oil victim. Mother killed.
This baby will have seen its mother slain.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, left of the forest, except for its soil.
It's all about money, greed and corruption.
Destruction and desolation as far as the eye can see
So much for Borneo's rainforests - look what palm oil companies have done to them.
They can barely cut down and remove the trees quick enough for their liking.
Palm oil companies destroy rainforests.
Freshly cut trees
These trees could end up as garden furniture in your local store.
Not a tree in sight - courtesy of oil palm companies.
Oil palm plants growing where rainforest once stood.