Indonesia-US relations ‘unaffected by leaked cables’

US diplomatic communications on Indonesia have not been made fully available by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks but experts say there were no particular conversations that could possibly derail relations between both countries.

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) researcher Siswanto said people could expect to read about US-Indonesian diplomatic communications on sensitive issues such as the ban on military aid and training, counterterrorism or cooperation in maritime security but many of the facts related to those policies were no longer a secret.

“I don’t expect to read anything significant in the conversation between the two countries or something about Indonesia that may sour relations,” he said.

“Diplomatic relations between Indonesia and the US are no longer sensitive that there shouldn’t be anything [in the leaks] that we should fear,” he said.

But he pointed out that any leaks about US counterterrorism strategies involving Jakarta could trigger backlash from militant groups against Jakarta and US institutions.

The US revoked the military ban against the notorious Army Special Forces (Kopassus) in July, which was put in place in 1992 after a massacre by the forces in the then Indonesian province of Timor Leste. Some of the irregularities behind the implementation of the military ban were published by US journalist Allan Nairn.

Ernest Bower, a director with the Washington-based Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS), and an adviser to the US State Department, said recently that the US lifted the military ban because the US wanted to build strong ties with Indonesia as a member of ASEAN before it joined a forum under the regional grouping next year.

He shrugged away speculation that the US lifted the ban in exchange for giving the US a role in the South China Sea dispute, which has pitted Washington against Beijing over the latter’s territorial claim in the strategic area.

“The US has stated the importance of the Asia-Pacific region [and] that it wants to build closer ties by joining the East Asia Summit [EAS]. And so it makes sense that the US wanted to solve any issues it had with Jakarta before it decided to join the EAS,” he said.

Hashim Djalal, a veteran diplomat who was involved in talks over the South China Sea, said there was no particular aspect of US foreign policy on maritime security that could surprise the public.

“The South China Sea dispute is an old dispute and the US position has remained the same since the 1990s. That the dispute fueled more tension with China is mainly because the US said it wanted to have a role in the settlement. Why? Because it does not want China to block passage for its vessels in the South China Sea.”

Indonesian Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring said WikiLeaks had around 3,000 documents on Indonesia that were either confidential or non-confidential. The minister has established a team to collect the documents and he said the government would only comment on them if the documents were proven to be false.

Some of the information made available by WikiLeaks said the US State Department ordered the collection of “biographical and biometric information on key Non-Aligned Movement/G77/Organization of Islamic Conference permanent representatives”, including Indonesia.