Southeast Asia: News, Culture, Voices
Clinton visits Philippines under questions of US military aid
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You’ve probably heard of the Philippines recently because of one reason: typhoons. A series of storms hit the country in September and October. At one point 80 percent of Manila, a city of 11.5 million people, was under water. Nearly one thousand people were killed in the worst storms in forty years.
Protesters in Manila call for an end to US military intervention in the Philippines. (AP)
Well, today Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is visiting the country. It’s part of a tour of Asia – she heads to Singapore tomorrow and joins Barack Obama on his first visit as President to China. Clinton met briefly with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The visit is intended to focus on humanitarian aid and recovery.
However, Clinton also renewed US commitment to military aid in the country. Right now, there are an estimated 600 US troops in the Philippines and the Obama administration has requested more than $650 million in military aid for 2010. The US Government calls the country an important ally in the fight against terrorism.
I spoke with Liza Maza, a representative for the Gabriela Party in the Philippine Congress. She spoke about the effects on women of US military action in the region and the ongoing human rights violations under President Arroyo.
Listen to our conversation on FSRN here.
Radio Reports: Indonesia and Clinton’s Visit
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Public Radio International’s The World, Feb 18, 2009:
After the bombings in Bali that killed more than 200 people, the Indonesian government cracked down hard on Islamic militants. It also developed a program to de-radicalize militants in prison. As Dorian Merina reports, officials are hoping to expand it to the country’s religious boarding schools.
Free Speech Radio News, Feb 18, 2009:
Anti-American protesters in Jakarta demonstrated against Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s visits to Indonesia today – part of her East Asian tour this week. Clinton met with her counterpart, Hassan Wirajuda, and talked about constructing a wide-ranging alliance with the Muslim-majority nation. Clinton’s visit is being touted as a new step in the U.S.’s relationship with Indonesia: during the Bush administration’s so-called “war on terror”, the nation’s Islamic schools were often characterized as the breeding grounds of terrorism and violence.
But most schools and institutions provide an important place of education for the country’s poor and rural communities, while offering an ideological challenge to fundamentalist groups. FSRN’S Dorian Merina takes us to West Java, where a group of scholars and educators are promoting a progressive agenda of religious pluralism and gender equality – all within the schools themselves.
Ustadz Wahyuddin, current director of the Pondok Ngruki school in Central Java.
Conflict in Gaza Angers Indonesians
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When I visited with religious leaders in Indonesia last November, many of them – even those from the most remote villages – spoke at length about the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Although the leaders had diverse interpretations of Islam, there was one point nearly all of them agreed on: the occupation of Palestine and the embargo on the territories was an affront to Muslims everywhere – and the U.S. support for Israel was always cited as a sore point.
Now, as the current incursion into Gaza stretches into its second week, Indonesians are expressing their outrage.
Indonesian boys at a rally in Jakarta earlier this week. Tarko Sudiarno / JP
The conservative Islamic groups, including the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), have called for Indonesia to send jihadists to Gaza to support the population there. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has resisted the call while condemning the attacks and pushing for humanitarian aid instead. He’s called the current conflict a territorial issue in an attempt to de-emphasize the religious aspect of the violence.
In West Java, hundreds of Muslim students rallied outside a McDonald’s, promising to boycott American products unless the Indonesian government sends humanitarian assistance immediately.
And in the port city of Surabaya, protestors sealed off a Jewish synagogue and hundreds more rallied in front of the U.S. embassy.
“If Israel doesn’t stop its attacks on the Palestinian people immediately, we will conduct raids on sympathizers, supporters and Israeli agents in the province,” a rally organizer warned.
Indonesians are also looking to Obama to speak out on the issue. There are some indications that his silence is straining the close bond that many Indonesians feel for the president-elect. See an opinion piece by Bramantyo Prijosusilo here in which he makes the case for Obama to come up with a concrete peace plan for the region soon.
Activists Press for Justice in Munir Case
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This Sunday in Jakarta, activists took to the streets to demand justice in the 2004 murder of human rights lawyer, Munir Said Thalib. Munir was well-known for providing legal counsel to victims of human rights abuses under former-President Suharto’s 32-year-rule.
Photo by The Jakarta Post
Munir died of arsenic poisoning on a Geruda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam via Singapore on Sept. 7, 2004. An Indonesian pilot has already been convicted of poisoning Munir and is now serving a 20 year sentence in prison. But the story is threatening to lead higher in the government. As AFP put it in June: “The case is seen as a test of how far the Indonesian government, under its post-Suharto mantra of “Reformasi” or reform, has managed to clean up the security agencies and bring them under democratic, civilian rule.”
Now, a former deputy chief in the State Intelligence Agency has been formerly charged with allegedly premeditating the murder.
The case has been a long time in coming, testing the patience of those seeking a thorough, transparent trial. At one point, vice president Jusuf Kalla urged the country to let justice run its course. But activists don’t seem ready to let up the pressure. Munir’s widow, Suciwati, told AFP in June: “There must be another person who had the ultimate power to order the murder.” It remains to be seen how far up this “other person” goes.
