THE WASHINGTON POST, Tuesday, May 14, 2002; Page A17
Concerned by Indonesia's Voice of Caution
U.S., Asian Diplomats Say Vice President Preventing More Forceful War on Terror
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By Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 14, 2002; Page A17 JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Vexed by assertions that
international terrorists may have burrowed into Indonesia, Vice President Hamzah Haz
decided to find out for himself -- by hosting a dinner at his house for the country's
Islamic extremist A-list.
Among those invited was Abubakar Baasyir, a cleric alleged to be the ideological
leader of an al Qaeda-linked organization that plotted to blow up several Western
embassies in Singapore with truck bombs.
Jafar Umar Thalib, whose Laskar Jihad militia has fought to evict Christians and
implement Islamic law in the Moluccas islands, also was in attendance. So was
Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Syihab, the leader of a group that threatened
to forcibly expel Americans from Indonesia after the United States started bombing
Afghanistan last year.
Haz, who leads Indonesia's largest Muslim political party, said the four-hour
discussion over dinner in late March reinforced what he suspected, leaving him
"certain that there are no terrorists in Indonesia."
"They only want to see that Indonesia has a religious society," Haz said in a recent
interview. "None of them have an extreme character."
Although the vice presidency is a largely ceremonial office in Indonesia, Haz's
opinions about Islamic radicalism are politically significant. Since Sept. 11, he has
emerged as one of the most influential architects of the government's approach to
dealing with terrorism, a role that has troubled the United States and some of
Indonesia's neighbors.
Indonesian officials and Western diplomats said Haz has counseled President
Megawati Sukarnoputri to move cautiously in rounding up alleged terrorists and
clamping down on extremist groups, arguing that such actions require not just
suspicions but incontrovertible proof of wrongdoing, which the country's intelligence
service lacks.
Thus far, Megawati appears to be heeding that message. Despite requests from the
governments of Singapore and Malaysia, Indonesian authorities have opted not to
arrest Baasyir, who runs a large religious school where he lionizes Osama bin Laden
and preaches about the importance of fighting holy wars. Government officials said
they do not have evidence indicating he has broken Indonesian laws.
"There are some in the government who want to take firm steps against some of these
groups," said a senior Indonesian security official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity. "But there are others, including the vice president, who are telling the
president to be careful, not to go too fast."
Indonesia's reluctance to rein in extremists and detain suspected terrorists has
prompted concern in Washington and neighboring Asian capitals that the world's most
populous Muslim country could become a base from which to plot new attacks.
Although Western diplomats here said they respected Indonesia's insistence on
having evidence before making arrests, they question whether authorities have been
looking hard enough.
"They're not really at the point where they see international terrorism as a big problem
for them," a senior U.S. official said.
Political analysts said that despite preaching prudence to Megawati, Haz, 62, a
career politician from the Indonesian half of the island of Borneo, has shaped
anti-terror policy more by what he has not said than by what he has.
Because Megawati is not regarded as sufficiently devout by conservative Muslims,
she views Haz's support as crucial to neutralize the backlash from a crackdown on
hard-line groups, the analysts said. "But he's refused to give her the green light, and
she's uncomfortable to proceed without that backing," said Jusuf Wanandi, a senior
fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research group in
Jakarta.
"He's the ballast in Indonesia's fight against terror," said a Western diplomat here.
"He's not playing a helpful role."
Since taking office last July, Megawati has spent relatively little time reaching out to
conservative Muslim groups, leaving that task to Haz, Wanandi said. "She's let him
set the agenda with the Muslims," he said. "She hasn't reined him in."
Haz said he does not condone terrorism, but added that he does not regard radical
groups as worthy of automatic suspicion. Among senior government officials, he has
some of the most sympathetic attitudes toward the activities of Baasyir and other
hard-line Muslim figures.
Haz said his stance was shaped by 32 years of dictatorship under former president
Suharto, when scores of Muslim leaders were jailed on trumped-up subversion
charges.
"We are living in an era of human rights and supremacy of the law," he said. "In the
past, you could arrest people just like that. Now we can't do that anymore."
Haz said there are "probably only one or two" hard-line Islamic leaders in Indonesia.
"But none of them has an organized network with a power to create chaos and cause
instability," he said. "There is no such thing."
Jafar, the Laskar Jihad leader, said he appreciated the opportunity to talk to the vice
president. "He asked us directly whether we were terrorists," Jafar said. "Then, he
discussed the issue with us."
Police arrested Jafar earlier this month on charges that he ordered an attack on a
Christian village in the Moluccas in which 12 people were killed. Haz visited Jafar in
his jail cell to "offer sympathy" as a "Muslim brother."
Haz first riled U.S. officials a few days after Sept. 11, when he told worshipers at a
Jakarta mosque that the attacks in New York and Washington "will cleanse the sins
of the United States." In the interview, he insisted the quote was taken out of context.
He said he was not condoning terrorism but simply looking at the tragedy as a devout
Muslim would.
"As a Muslim, if we face a misfortune or we are in an accident, we still have to thank
God," he said. "The misfortune will cleanse our sins. That is the context of the quote."
Haz, who wears a fez-like prayer hat made of black felt, prays several times a day. He
has two wives who have official security details and attend government functions.
Local media organizations have reported that he also has two other wives, a subject
upon which he would not comment. "It's between me and God," he said.
Haz is widely expected to vie for the presidency during the country's next general
elections, in 2004. Analysts said that although they do not think he will get a majority,
he could emerge as a strong contender to represent a coalition of Muslim parties.
In 1999, he lost the vice presidency to Megawati when she lost the presidency to
Abdurraham Wahid. Her party had received the most votes, but Haz and other Muslim
leaders opposed her becoming president because they did not believe a woman
should serve in that role. After parliament dismissed Wahid last year, a decision that
improved Haz's chances of gaining the vice presidency, he dropped his opposition to
Megawati's ascension.
Haz's rise to power illustrates the growing clout of Muslim-oriented political parties
since Suharto stepped down in 1998. Although the platforms of the Muslim parties,
which collectively control about one-fourth of the seats in parliament, are in many
ways identical to those of their secular rivals, particularly on economic and security
issues, they have a markedly different social agenda. Several of them want to
transform Indonesia into a strict Islamic nation, replacing the country's secular legal
system with Islamic sharia law.
Several radical Islamic leaders have been critical of Haz, saying he has not pushed
forcefully enough for sharia since becoming vice president, a shift that appears to have
been calculated to improve his popularity.
Haz denied backing down from his support for sharia, but he said he wants it
implemented not by vigilantes but by parliament. "It is the obligation of Muslim parties
to struggle for matters related to Islamic laws and values," he said. "Of course we
want to implement Islamic regulations. But in our struggle we have to be realistic. We
have to see whether the struggle is possible constitutionally and democratically. We
don't want to create any instability."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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