Reuters, Tue Apr 20, 2004 01:28 AM ET
Indonesia militant Bashir claws back public support
By Dean Yates
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has not even been
charged yet in a fresh terrorism investigation, but already public opinion is shifting
behind the jailed preacher amid anger at perceived U.S. meddling.
Prominent Islamist politicians have begun dropping by to see the accused head of the
al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network at his Jakarta jail cell to accuse
Washington of forcing Indonesia to keep the preacher behind bars.
And his legal team is about to start lobbying big mainstream Muslim groups as
Bashir's release date on April 30 nears.
All this poses a challenge to the world's most populous Muslim nation before
presidential elections in July and when sentiment for Washington is at all-time low
over the war in Iraq and U.S. policies towards the Muslim world in general.
Police last week named Bashir a terror suspect in a new investigation, which might
allow them to keep him detained. Police are focusing on possible links to the 2002
Bali bombings and Bashir's alleged leadership of Jemaah Islamiah.
Zachary Abuza, an expert on Jemaah Islamiah at Simmons College in Boston, said
serious obstacles lay ahead.
"The roadblocks are that the vast majority of Indonesians believe he is innocent, that
he has been acquitted of treason before and most people assume it's just sheer
American pressure that's going to start it again," said Abuza.
"I don't think any politician wants to go down that road."
Authorities and regional intelligence experts and officials blame Jemaah Islamiah for
the October, 2002, Bali bomb attacks that killed 202 people. Bashir, 65, was arrested
just after Bali, although he has never been named a suspect.
Bashir denies links to terror and says JI does not exist.
But Indonesia is under mounting foreign pressure to go after him again after previous
charges of leading Jemaah Islamiah and treason were either dismissed or overturned.
Washington has made clear it wants him in jail.
DEJA VU
That plays into Bashir's hands, say analysts, allowing Indonesians who don't want to
believe they have a problem with terrorism to buy into theories it is all being
orchestrated.
Indeed, the same thing happened when Bashir was first arrested just after the Bali
bombings.
That support eventually dried up as Indonesians lost sympathy for radical views and
politicians decided it was not in their interests to be seen with Bashir.
The tide appears to be turning again despite Bashir's unrepentant views.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, he endorsed the bombing of U.S. interests in Iraq,
indicated attacking the U.S. government on American soil was acceptable, and called
the Bali bombers misguided but praiseworthy fighters.
The head of the conservative Islamist Prosperous Justice Party, which did well in
Indonesia's parliamentary elections this month, visited Bashir at the weekend.
Ahmad Sumargono, a senior member of the Islamist Crescent Star Party, which is led
by President Megawati Sukarnoputri's justice minister, visited Bashir on Monday.
"I do not understand why the United States is scared of Abu Bakar Bashir. Look at
him, he's already old," said Sumargono.
That image of the avuncular cleric was effective before and might be again.
"There is a real act about him. Everything's stage-managed," said Abuza.
Andrew Tan of Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies said Bashir and
terrorism would be a major issue for whoever runs Indonesia after the presidential
elections because the majority of JI members at large were in Indonesia.
More attacks against Western targets were expected, he said.
"I think, unfortunately, the whole issue of terrorism will define U.S.-Indonesia relations
for a very long time," Tan said.
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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