Source: International Herald Tribune/Bloomberg News
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/10/asia/letter.php
Indonesia's top-rated youth-music television show, featuring dancing divas in sequined minidresses, is an unlikely venue for President Barack Obama's drive to repair the U.S. image among Muslims.
Appearing on "Dahsyat" ("Awesome") in Jakarta last month during her first overseas trip as U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton was quickly reminded how tough that task may be. As she tried to connect with her audience here in the most populous Muslim nation on earth - talking about democracy and her love of the Beatles - she also was grilled on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 8,700 kilometers, or 5,400 miles, away.
"Everyone is watching and waiting to see if this administration's policy is really going to be friendlier to the Muslim world," said Yulia Supadmo, 38, a TV executive who listened as Clinton promised that the United States "will get re-engaged" in Middle East peace talks.
Obama's inaugural pledge to "seek a new way forward" with Muslim countries is much more than a popularity campaign. He needs help to solve shared problems related to energy security, Iran's nuclear program and the terrorist threat from radical Islamists who have inspired many more attacks in Muslim nations than in the United States. The global recession, which could threaten the political order in a number of developing countries, may make his task even more difficult.
Even in Indonesia, where a Gallup survey last year showed almost half the population had a favorable view of U.S. leadership - a far bigger share than in the Arab world - people want more than gestures from the new administration.
America "is not going to get that cooperation if it's seen as an imperial power, untrustworthy or working contrary to interests of Muslims," said Stephen Grand, who organized the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar, last month, where he saw cautious optimism among leaders from 35 countries who had largely tuned out President George W. Bush.
Reaching out to a complex and diverse constituency of 1.3 billion people in 57 nations in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East cannot be a one-size-fits-all project. The first step is restoring respect, says Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington. Bush "erroneously gave the impression that the 'war on terror' was a reflection of U.S. hostility to Islam," he says.
Obama, 47, should adopt "a much more nuanced approach, not the 'you're with us or you're against us' that draws a circle and doesn't allow anyone in," says Suhail Khan, a Muslim-American who served in the Bush White House. Among the issues facing the new president is whether to negotiate with the political wings of Hamas and Hezbollah, militant Islamic groups that do not recognize Israel's right to exist, and how to deal with more moderate elements of the Taliban.