Sunday, Aug 04, 2002
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By P. S. Suryanarayana
Mr. Powell was in Manila on the last leg of a weeklong anti-terror diplomatic visit to several key South-East Asian states. Sporadic protests marked Mr. Powell's stay in Manila. His visit to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, yesterday was surpringly incident-free given the fears that radical religious activists might try to stage rallies against America's "agenda" of waging a battle against proactive Islamic groups in the ongoing anti-terror war. The highlight of Mr. Powell's regional mission was the signing of an anti-terror declaration by the U.S. and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) here. Reflecting the new co-operative spirit, Mr. Powell told the leaders of the Philippines and Indonesia that Washington would stay engaged in South-East Asia in pursuit of the anti-terror cause. The latest aid offer to the Philippines matches the $50 million that he promised to Indonesia on his stopover there. In the case of the Philippines, the American aid package is in addition to a tranche of $100 million committed towards anti-poverty programmes as part of the overall fight against terrorism. There were no outward signs of disagreement between Mr. Powell, on the one side, and the leadership of both Indonesia and the Philippines on the other. His talks with the Indonesian President, Megawati Sukarnoputri, in Jakarta and those with the Filipino leader, Gloria Macapagal, in Manila, were focussed on countering terror. However, a significant sub-text of dissimilarity between the U.S.-Philippines interaction and America's engagement with Indonesia came into focus during Mr. Powell's visit. The U.S.-Philippines co-ordination is aimed at exterminating the threat to the political order of the Philippines from the Abu Sayyaf group and from its sympathisers among Islamic separatists who might not necessarily endorse its tactics and goals. This underlines America's willingness to help the Philippines in its fight against domestic terrorism. U.S. personnel have only recently completed a six-month training of the Philippines military forces in anti-terror techniques. The American promise of additional aid signals the possibility of another round of such training. In contrast, America's new engagement with Jakarta is primarily aimed at ensuring that anti-U.S. "international terrorists would be deprived of safe havens in the vast Indonesian archipelago." While Jakarta has a tradition of secular politics, radicals linked to the al-Qaeda are reckoned by American experts to be capable of exploiting Indonesia's status as the world's largest Muslim-majority state. With this in mind, Mr. Powell made a pointed reference to Indonesia playing a positive role in the formulation of the U.S.-ASEAN declaration against terrorism. On the larger East Asian front, China is closely monitoring U.S. anti-terror moves involving Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.
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