W

ith China gradually raising its political and economic influence as well as military presence in Asia and the Pacific, the US has no choice but to seek help from Indonesia and other ASEAN countries to balance out China’s influence in the region.

“Our hope is that the ASEAN community can assist us in our effort to improve our relations with China,” US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told a press briefing after meeting with Indonesian Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro in Jakarta on Sunday.

In the process of gaining support in Asia, an engine of global growth where the US has major interests in trade and investment, vis-a-vis China’s threat, the US has at times appeased Indonesia, and has expressed its full support for Indonesia’s handling of restive Papua.

“First and foremost, we support Indonesia’s efforts against separatism,” said Panetta, who later on Sunday met all the ASEAN defense ministers.

While the US has voiced its concern over the recent violence in Papua, calling for an investigation to ascertain the identities of the perpetrators in several shooting killings, its unflinching support for Indonesia’s handling of its eastern-most provinces appears to contradict its strong stance on human rights.

At the very least, its current stance is a far cry from the Clinton administration’s approach to human rights in the 1990s, when it banned military weaponry exports to Indonesia over human rights abuses in Timor Leste.

At least 10 people have been killed during demonstrations against Freeport’s mining operation in Timika, and during a Papuan rally for independence in Jayapura, over the last two weeks.

There has been no negativity from the Obama administration over US gold and copper giant Freeport’s struggle with worker strikes over the last month, in which strikers shut down the company’s billion-dollar operation, triggering sometimes chaotic scenes that claimed the lives of local civilians and police officers.

“We never get involved in [stopping] the strike because it is the workers and the company that should do that. However, we did ask for protection for our citizens there, and so far Indonesia has done well in this regard,” US Ambassador to Indonesia Scot Marciel added.

In wooing other ASEAN countries, the US uses maritime security issues, such as China’s quarrel with some ASEAN countries over islands in the South China Sea, piracy and trade lanes in the Malacca Strait, as its entry points, stating that the US will protect ASEAN nations’ interests and warning China that the US remains a power in the region.

“The principle that I bring to Indonesia and this part of the world is that the US remains a Pacific power, that we will continue to strengthen our presence in this part of the world, we remain a force for peace and prosperity in this region, and we continue to push for free and open commerce, open access through the sea and the air. We’ll continue to seek a just international order,” Panetta, who will meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday, said.

He said that the US would continue to seek cooperative and comprehensive relations with China, including military to military in the nature of open communication between the two sides, but he also acknowledged the threat concerns China’s neighbors had raised.

“At the same time it’s important for China to be transparent in this kind of relationship and to really join in the process of open communication and relations,” Panetta said referring to accusations that China has not fully disclosed its military budget and capabilities.

Purnomo said he had told Panetta that Indonesia would not tolerate any act of separatism in Papua.

“I told him what happened in Papua before he asked me. We must explain what happened to erase any suspicion against us,” he said.