October 20, 1999
U.S. Says It Can Work With Indonesian President By Reuters
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Indonesia's new President, Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid, is clearly a man Washington can work with, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth said Wednesday.
Roth said he had met with Gus Dur, as Wahid is popularly known, on every occasion he had visited Indonesia recently.
He said the new Indonesian president had been ``quite impressive in terms of his breath [sic] of knowledge on the issues and intentions toward the United States...This is a person clearly the U.S. can work with.''
Roth said it was difficult to comment on the political situation right now as the process had not reached maturity with the election of the vice-president still to come and public reaction to Wahid's victory, which came at the expense of the popular Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Roth, speaking to reporters on a trip to Singapore, also welcomed the assembly's decision to ratify East Timor's recent vote for independence, calling it a ``major stabilizing event.''
He said Southeast Asia viewed Indonesia now ``as a containable issue'' and there was ``no panic syndrome'' unlike a year ago when there were real concerns that the regional giant could implode.
But Roth said it was still premature for the United States to re-establish military ties with Indonesia.
The ties were suspended after Indonesian troops were found to have played a part in violence unleashed by anti-independence militias in East Timor after the August 30 referendum.
``It's premature to say that we are going to restore military-to-military relations, although that certainly would be our objective, but it's going to depend on the actions of the Indonesian military.''
Roth said these actions include military reform, acceptance of civilian supremacy and successfully managing events involving East and West Timor.
He said one of the immediate issues was the Indonesian military's role in Timor. He said Washington was watching to see if the army lives up to Defense Minister Wiranto's pledge to prevent militiamen in Indonesian West Timor crossing the border into now independent East Timor to launch attacks.
Roth refused to comment on which presidential candidate Washington preferred.
But he said former president B.J. Habibie had done the right thing to withdraw earlier Wednesday after losing a confidence vote.
Habibie quit as a candidate for Wednesday's presidential vote in the People's Consultative Assembly, the supreme legislature, after the assembly rejected his recent accountability speech -- a report card on his 17 turbulent months in power.
Roth said the United States was encouraged by ``the fact that there has been peaceful process within Indonesia and this took place in the context ... of the Indonesian constitution.''
``Sure, there were large demonstrations, but only insignificant violence, certainly not a crisis,'' he said.