Many Indonesian find it unbelievable that their country, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, has a very limited role in Middle Eastern issues. It is true Indonesia lacks both economical and political power. But the underlying reason lies in its own attitude toward Middle Eastern issues.

Indonesia has failed to build a solid and persistent Middle Eastern policy. The reason lies in its failure to define its interest toward the region. A good and sound foreign policy must be based on substantial and pragmatic interests. What then is our interest in the Middle East? No one can tell.

There are two different views here on whether we support the Palestinian cause over the so-called Muslim brotherhood spirit or adhere to the principle that each country has the right to independence. At the core of this debate is whether we should build our foreign policy based on religious or nationalist stance.

The Islamist camp tends to favor the former while the nationalist camp favors the later. This tendency indicates that for Indonesians, or, to be more precise, Indonesian elites, Middle Eastern issues are not just a matter of foreign policy but one of domestic politics.

Case studies also demonstrate Middle Eastern issues are included in the country’s domestic politics. One clear example is the Iranian nuclear case.

As we have already witnessed, the Iranian case was the one and only foreign policy issue that could trigger the House of Representatives (DPR) to use its interrogative right against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. But why did the House members decide to do so? Was it because the legislators saw any violation of Indonesia’s free and independent foreign policy? Absolutely not!

The reason to do so was because the issue provided an excellent opportunity to gain support from the people, the majority of which are Muslims.

That Iran has a right to develop its nuclear technology was not the reason. Nor that the sanction was mainly due to American hatred toward the Iranian regime.

The rationale behind the decision was not important. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already explained the decision was in line with Indonesia’s consistent position toward not exacerbating the issue. The government has taken the decision based on rational calculations with respect to its basic foreign policy doctrine.

Indonesian elites were simply falling into the trap of Iranian public diplomacy that used religious ideas as its tools. And they had to play with it otherwise they would lose public support as religious sentiment is a big deal for this country’s inhabitants.

In order to maximize its role in Middle Eastern issues, two related tasks must be done.

First, we must cease using Middle Eastern issues merely as a domestic political commodity. The Middle East is out there. We must build our Middle Eastern policy based on what we do.

When we say we want to have a peaceful and stable Middle East then we must be able to provide ample suggestions on how we are going to do it. With whom we are going to work?

And, in what way we are going to do it? It will be better if the domestic debate is centered on defining the interest rather than the need to use a religious or non-religious stance in navigating the policy.

Second, the debate over whether or not we should base our policy on religious or nationalist foundation should not be made as a matter of one choice.

A clear distinction between Middle East and Islam must prevail in order to do so. Not all players in the Middle East based their attitude on religious ideas. Most of them are rational actors that acting in rational manner by calculating the benefits and loses.

Even if they use religious ideas in their policy, it is merely an attempt to gain support since there is no correlation between politics and religion except to use one another as a mask. We do can use the religious ideas as tools in implementing our policy but not the other way around.

As long as we still consider Middle Eastern issues as part of our domestic politics and treat it as a political commodity at home, we will never move forward.

The writer is a lecturer at the Department of International Relations, University of Indonesia.

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