---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- SUPANGKAT'S COLUMNS: GUS DUR'S FOREIGN POLICY: PRO-ISRAEL, ANTI-WEST? Before he was elected President, Gus Dur is notorious for his unpreditability. inconsistency and his spontaneous, thoughtless outrages. And he is more an actor than politician, he is always playing to the public. That way he got a lot of support from the underclass rather than from the intellectuals. Foreign journalists have been dubbing him as an intellectual. Intellectual he is not, intelligent, perhaps. Intellectualism is some kind of a taboo for Arab Muslim fundamentalists who categorized it as part of "Zionism". And Gus recommended his associates to go to Zionist univesities to study their intelectualism like Alwi Shihab who graduated from the Temple University in Connecticut in religious studies and groomed to be Minister of Religious Affairs by the Suharto regime. He couldn't possibly become a foreign policy maker out of the blue. But most of his NU people including himself went to the "Pesantren", the most fundamentalist school of Orthodox Islam, unlike the modern oriented Muhammad- iyah schools led by Prof Dr Amien Rais. In this case, Gus is inconsistent with his NU ideologies. But because of him, and Amien Rais and others, NU has been reconciled with Muhammadiyah. For this particular reason, Amidjaya is right that Gus is like any other Muslim fundamentalists in his anti-West attitude and professing the Indonesian philosophy of life known as "katak di bawah tempurung" which an "Ostrichism to the outside world", even in the absence of danger. However, it is hard to say that Gus as an actor - according to the ancient Java- nese belief, the Ratuadil (like King Arthur) is "Notonagoro" meaning in Jawi kuno as "actor of the state" - is a pro-Israel fundamentalist but anti-Western. He could be both either as tactics or as principle. His definition of secularism is confusing: he said yes tor church-state separat- ion and no to individual religious belief-state separation. Albert Camus he is not, but he said yes and no too. An actor can play many roles. But I sincerely hope that Gus Dur stops acting as an actor right now and right here and act as Head of State and Prime Miniter who is mightier than life having most absolute power according to the 45 Constitution. His pronouncements are basically anti West and megalomaniac-nationalistic in nature. But his unpreditablity gave room to the contrary like pro-Israel and pro-capitalism, anti-Australia as well. Therefore he could be either or neither or both. The market is very curious. We are embedded in the most serious multiple crises and his obligation is to overcome them with resolution and finesse and lightning speed before the rebelliousness of the masses develops into anarchism or revolutionary mood. He is doomed to failure if he keeps acting and playing around. New York, October 28, 1999. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 27 Oct 1999 jam 22:36:50 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
