Indonesian Government Sets Deadline - Request for Details

I was watching CNN this morning. There was a brief item concerning a decision by the Government of Indonesia (GoI) to "order" all American relief workers and agencies out of Indonesia by March. CNN for once didn't comment on either the decision or its possible ramifications. Unfortunately, they also didn't provide many details beyond the bare announcement.I'm hoping that one of our Indonesian posters can provide additional details on this decision.I am aware of GoI concerns relative to the on-going Sumatran independence movement/low-level guerrilla insurgency. However, one of the practical aspects of concern was expressed by my wife (who, as a senior foriegn service officer with USAID, has a great deal of experience being involved with and leading international disaster relief and recovery efforts around the world): simply rebuilding basic infrastructure in Banda Aceh, for instance, will take a full-court press using every resource available for at least a year. If the GoI is concerned about foreign meddling in their insurgency, kicking out key players before the relief effort is completed would seem to provide the guerrillas with even more justification and recruits.In addition, the possible political ramifications would appear extraordinary. Even I (and I consider myself relatively multiculturally-oriented and able to understand - even if I don't agree with them - other nations' sovereignty issues, etc), could come up with no more charitable phrase than "ungrateful" or "short-sighted" when considering this decision. To the average American, given the overwhelmingly generous private donations, not to mention government donations, that have been provided both to the region generally and Indonesia in particular, this is going to appear a major slap in the face and insult.I'd appreciate any input bearing on the rationale for this decision on the part of the GoI.

Thanks for your reply.However, in the first place, this was not a spontaneous outpouring of anti-Americanism by the average Indonesian civilian along the lines of "we'd rather die than accept help from the infidel". It was a sudden decision by the GoI that in my opinion is extraordinarily short-sighted.Secondly, there hasn't typically been a huge amount of ant-Americanism in Indonesia, even in light of the Iraq War. They actually seem to dislike the Australians more than us. Oh, there've been protests, but not anywhere near the scale of many other countries, especially in the Middle East. Indonesia has been a pretty tolerant Moslem nation in that sense.Third, there have been travel restrictions on foreigners on Sumatra for years, again due to the insurgency. IIRC, foreigners need special permission to associate with locals, travel to remote regions, etc, and must be escorted at all times. I'm not sure if this applied to Banda Aceh itself, but it certainly did to the rest of the island. The ostensible reason was to avoid any possibility that foreigners were giving assistance to the insurgents.However, you have nicely proven my point concerning American reaction to this decision.

Possibly, I suppose. However, Indonesian Moslems historically have been relatively friendly and their particular brand of Islam is an especially tolerant one. They tend to reserve (in the main) their dislike for internal, tribal issues and quasi-independence movements. Remember there are approx. 1700 different cultures speaking as many languagues contained in the nation of Indonesia. My speculation is that the government was more concerned with the insurgency (and possibly proselytizing by other religions) than they were with "infidels" per se.

Heh. Still, sometimes it's nice not to be #1 on everybody's hate list, right?

That's interesting, CNN made it sound like everybody was ordered out. My wife sits on the management panel for the USG Tsunami Task Force - I'll see what I can weasel out of her tonight (the closed-lipped so-and-so).

Hey, MT.I managed to pin down the lady last evening. Apparently the BBC broadcast had it closer than CNN: it was just military forces which were being ordered out. Which makes sense - the GoI no matter how tolerant, is not going to be really comfortable about a US military presence at this time.Interestingly enough, it appears that the GoI has tightened up the existing travel restrictions - all foreign aid workers must be registered, all travel up-country approved, and all movement (say, to deliver supplies) must be escorted by the Indonesian military - which is not a good thing. I haven't heard what the US gov reaction is going to be, but I presume acquiescence.

Thanks Syamasu. I wasn't aware the GoI was that exercised about danger to foreign workers. The decision could make sense in that context, although I think it remains a difficult one to justify considering the needs of the victims. Eliminating the foreign military presence does make sense in the context of avoiding incidents, however.