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Can Indonesia cope with Hillary Clinton?
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is no stranger in dealing with assertive women
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President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is no stranger in dealing with assertive women.
He worked under President Megawati Soekarnoputri and even saw to her eventual demise in the 2004 polls.
But in US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton he will have an altogether different prospect in trying to assert Indonesia’s position vis-à-vis the waning American hegemony of the 21st century.
Since her arrival here yesterday, Clinton has made the right overtures.
Delivering the kind of rhetoric that Indonesians want to hear.
“Building a comprehensive partnership with Indonesia is a critical step on behalf of the United States’ commitment to smart power,” she said after meeting with Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda.
“Certainly Indonesia… will play a leading role in the promotion of that future,” she added referring to the Obama administration’s new outlook on world affairs.
She has even given hope that the US will again resume a strategic yet conforming role in the sub-region by beginning the process of accession to ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC).
With her guile and charm, there is no doubt that in a mere 24-hour stopover she will enchant the whole nation.
But who really is Hillary Clinton?
Is she a true friend or someone carrying out the international public relations duty of a new president in need of reforming and shoring up global support for Washington?
A study of her record shows she is a politician first — pragmatic and opportunistic — but with a steady penchant for supporting ideological issues that are politically anodyne and indubitable to common sense.
As she wrote in the late 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs, “Avoid false choices driven by ideology.”
She is a champion of developing world issues – child care, education, the environment and women’s rights.
She is a supporter of the Kyoto Protocol and as a senator has also pushed for the quick passage of the Education for All Act, which provides US$10 billion to train teachers and build schools in the developing world.
Author Sally B. Smith, in her book on Clinton, For Love of Politics, also wrote that as first lady, Hillary Clinton “deserves more credit than anyone” for securing increased development funding for USAID.
Despite her outstretched hand of friendship as secretary of state, her accomplished, but often exaggerated, foreign policy experience has shown a tendency — both as a senator in the Foreign Relations Committee and running for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party — to remain hawkish in dealing with states regarded as recalcitrant to her own views.
During the Democratic debates, she stood opposite to Obama by seemingly repeating the egocentric policies of the Bush administration.
If elected president, she argued, she would refuse to meet leaders from states like Iran.
Remarks in one debate such as “we cannot have our president meet with these people”, may soon come back to haunt her as secretary of state.
These, and many other issues, stand contrary to Indonesia’s own foreign policy stance.
Clinton opposes the lifting of the embargo on Cuba, and strongly urged president Bush to boycott the Beijing Olympic Games.
Her record on Israel also conflicts with Jakarta’s own view. In 1999-2000, she called for the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to be moved to Jerusalem, the “indivisible capital of Israel”.
Being Democratic Party stalwarts, both President Obama and his secretary of state share similar ideological viewpoints.
Both are showing reluctance on free trade issues and support for Israel, for example. But as the world saw during the debates and nominating process, style makes all the difference.
How much will Clinton’s views sway the Obama US foreign policy vision?
Former president George W. Bush had two very able and accomplished secretaries of state.
Colin Powell was a distinguished soldier, respected and upstanding gentleman.
But he too had to tow the line when his president was eager to invade Iraq.
Condoleezza Rice was an Ivy League scholar, but she could not detour the administration’s plunging into an abyss of recklessness.
Hence, even though the former first lady in her autobiography, Living History, lauds Eleanor Roosevelt’s axiom that women in political life must “develop skin as tough as rhinoceros hide”, she will likely restrain her own instincts and accede to an Obama-run policy orientation.
