[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17386-17388]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    INDONESIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about a very recent 
event that is important to the United States and which should have 
received a lot greater publicity than it did. I know the occupant of 
the chair, who is from Alaska, understands the importance of Southeast 
Asia to our economy and to security for the world. This is where the 
event took place. On July 8, the people of Indonesia elected 
democratically their second democratically elected president, Susilio 
Bambang Yudoyono. For obvious reasons, he is known by the initials SBY. 
He enjoyed a victory, according to preliminary results by the national 
election commission, of 62 percent of the vote, based on more than 18.7 
million ballots counted. He needed 50 percent of the ballots to win in 
one round.
  His challengers, former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, came in 
second, with 28 percent, and his previous vice president, Jusuf Kalla, 
finished third with 10 percent. We will have an official result 
released by the election commission by July 27.
  I think it is very clear that SBY won an overwhelming election. This 
would put Mr. Yudhoyono well over the 50-percent threshold to avoid a 
second-round runoff. Those who watch Southeast Asia believe that such 
an emphatic election victory for a man who became the democratically 
elected President 5 years ago will cement his position, quicken the 
pace of reform, and strengthen the country that is very important to 
that region and, thus, to the United States.
  Mr. Yudhoyono rose under the dictator Suharto, who was forced out 11 
years ago after more than three decades in power, to a position in the 
army, where he was a general. But when he became President, he set 
aside his military uniform and took on civilian garb. He is a liberal 
who provided much needed stability. Despite the challenges of dismal 
infrastructure and 30 million Indonesians living below the poverty 
line, a country that extends through some 17,000 islands at low water, 
and 13,000 islands at high tide level, it is a country that is the 
largest Muslim country in the world. A population of 240 million people 
makes it the fifth largest country in the world. It has 90 percent of 
its population as

[[Page 17387]]

Muslims. So this is the key to dealing with a Muslim nation.
  Mr. Yudhoyono is credited with bringing economic prosperity with an 
economy set to grow even in the face of the global downturn, expected 
to grow by 4 percent this year. Independent observers declared that the 
Presidential election was largely free and fair, despite an accusation 
of fraud by his opponents. There is no evidence of that, and we believe 
it was a free election. It is key to our national interest because it 
is the keystone for Southeast Asia.
  Southeast Asia includes a number of countries, perhaps better known 
to the United States--Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and many smaller 
countries. It is the fifth largest trading partner of the United 
States. On top of that, it controls the Strait of Malaka, through which 
about 50 percent of the world's oil supply travels. It is also an area 
which offers tremendous opportunity for economic growth for them and 
increased trade and economic benefits to the United States.
  SBY was a general in the national army during the last decade of the 
Suharto years. During that time, fortunately, he attended the 
International Military Education Training Institute at Fort 
Leavenworth, KS. There, leaders of friendly countries come to learn 
from our military how a military should operate in the modern era where 
military is under civilian control, where human rights and individuals 
are respected, where the army does not control the political process, 
where the army is subordinate to and the protector of the population, 
rather than one which runs the population.
  During his first tenure, as I said, he faced many challenges, and 
they were successful. He chose as his running mate Mr. Boediono, who we 
believe raises expectations of accelerating reform in the second term 
of SBY. Boediono is a technocrat with no party affiliation. He 
possesses an impeccable track record for clean governance. He is an 
advocate, as is SBY, of market-led growth, with government acting as an 
impartial regulator rather than a state actor. The duo campaigned on a 
ticket of clean governance and reform to promote broad-based economic 
growth. This was a vote by the predominantly Muslim country for a 
moderate prodemocratic path that Indonesia has already taken. They 
still face many challenges--not just poverty--with the economic 
problems in the country. They face a long tradition of corruption that 
has to be dealt with. SBY has taken steps to deal with that and needs 
to take more steps.
  They also face the challenge from radical Islamists who want to 
establish Sharia law, a government by theocracy rather than by a 
popularly elected, constitutionally governed government. I will speak 
more about that in a minute.
  Let me give you a little taste of the rest of it. His closest rival, 
Megawati Sukarnoputri, was the daughter of Sukarno, Indonesia's 
founding father. Ms. Megawati failed to impress voters during her term 
as President from 2001 to 2004, and she partnered with a general who 
was indicted for human rights abuse and was a former son-in-law of a 
previous authoritarian dictator. They ran a nationalistic campaign that 
was rejected by the voters of Indonesia.
  The third ticket, comprised of current Vice President Jusuf Kalla and 
a former chief of the army, Wiranto, championed a similar ideological 
platform, with the difference being that Jusuf Kalla was a link between 
big national businesses and the government, which we thought he would 
probably enhance. This sets up an opportunity for the United States.
  We are dealing with a very important Islamic country. I believe that 
it is time for us to realize this is an area where we can make 
significant progress, if we learn how to work with and provide 
significant support to a democratically elected head of an Islamic 
country, who wants to move on the path toward greater economic ties, 
free from corruption, open to trade and business.
  I happen to have laid all this out in a book called ``The Next 
Front,'' coauthored with Lewis Simons, a Pulitzer Prize-winning 
reporter. It will be published by Wiley Books in October. We call it 
``The Next Front'' because what people did not realize until recently 
was that, after 9/11, one of the indigenous terrorist groups in 
Indonesia, Jema Islamia, which we will call JI, was a close ally of al-
Qaida, and still is. That is a terrorist organization that has spread 
from Indonesia into the Philippines, and potentially other parts of 
Asia. The leader of JI was tasked by al-Qaida with carrying out the 
second attack following 9/11, which was to be on Los Angeles. 
Fortunately, our CIA, by aggressive tactics and military tactics, 
prevented that attack.
  There is still a real danger to not only peace and stability and 
progress in Southeast Asia, but to the security of the United States, 
unless we ensure that a government such as Yudhoyono's manages to 
provide security and prevent the development of terrorist training 
areas and agencies, where they are willing and able to carry out 
operations, disrupt terrorist organizations.
  In ``The Next Front,'' we argue, as I have, that the best way to do 
that is through significantly increasing contact between the United 
States and those governments that are dealing with those problems, that 
are on the wrong track, which have the potential to provide security 
and peace and prosperity for their own homeland. When they have too 
many young males who cannot find a job, they are often lured by the 
radical religious extremists into the terrorist organizations and 
convinced to undertake terrorist attacks on Americans, on 
democratically elected governments.
  We believe that steps that were taken yesterday in the Foreign 
Operations Committee, under the able leadership of Chairman Leahy, to 
put us on the path to increasing significantly the assistance and the 
contact we have with Southeast Asia. We increased to $65 million the 
amount of economic support fund assistance. They also instituted other 
programs to provide more assistance for Peace Corps. An expansion of 
the Peace Corps is one way to get American sandals on the ground now, 
so that we don't have to put American boots on the ground later.
  Smart Power says that when you are faced with a radical, violent 
extremist group like al-Qaida, or the Taliban, which we face in 
Afghanistan and Pakistan now, you have to use force to deal with them. 
At the same time you are using force, you must build up the economy and 
meet the needs of the local leaders, so that they will work with the 
forces who are trying to drive the extremists out. That was the secret 
to the success of General Petraeus in Iraq with the counterinsurgency 
strategy, who said we will not only clear an area but we will go in and 
hold it and build, looking to local leaders to tell us what they are 
doing.
  My son, who is a marine, an intel officer who served two tours there, 
said the first time he was there they couldn't get support from the 
local government because they were getting no assistance from Baghdad. 
They were Sunnis in Fallujah. The government in Baghdad was not Sunni; 
they were Shia, and they didn't provide assistance. The second time, 
the counterinsurgency and our government were working through the 
popularly elected Iraqi Government to provide support and assistance to 
the Sunnis in Fallujah. They were able to cooperate and provide 
assistance and make sure they kept that area safe.
  We are trying to do the same thing now in Afghanistan. I am proud 
that the Missouri National Guard is leading the way, along with 10 
other States' national guards, and we are sending over agricultural 
development teams to help the local farmers develop a more effective 
means of producing crops. We saw, last year, in Kandahar province, 
where the Missouri National Guard operated for 1 year. They started 
producing much more high-valued crops. As a result, they no longer 
needed to produce the poppies needed by the drug lords to manufacture 
cocaine and dope and opium. They were able to drive the poppy 
producers--put them into productive use and take the drug lords out, 
and the Taliban which normally follows them. This is working in 
Afghanistan.

[[Page 17388]]

  In areas where we have peaceful governments that are threatened by 
extremist groups, it makes sense that we increase economic assistance 
but primarily personal assistance--one-on-one assistance from American 
volunteers going there--economic assistance, encouraging American firms 
to invest there, to help them develop small- and medium-sized 
enterprises; opening up free trade so their products can come into the 
United States so we can trade with them and so they can build their 
economies. We need significantly to increase educational exchanges 
between our countries and theirs.
  I mentioned earlier that President Yudhoyono had served in the IMET 
Program at Fort Leavenworth. I first met him as President--well, I met 
him before--when I went to Indonesia after the tsunami in Bugatchi, and 
we talked about the work we were doing to help them recover from that 
tragic event. But I also extended an invitation for him to come to 
Webster University in St. Louis, MO, from which he had also gotten a 
degree. They gave him an honorary degree, and I was pleased to 
introduce him when he came to St. Louis to Webster University.
  His is just one of hundreds, thousands, millions of examples where we 
have helped develop leaders in countries with which we are allied and 
which can be even stronger allies. They could take the information we 
develop, take the learning and the skills we have, and provide the 
assistance they need to strengthen their country, to provide not only 
security but a good livelihood for their people so there will no longer 
be unemployed young men who are willing to take blood money from the 
terrorists in exchange for a pittance for their family to conduct 
terrorist attacks.
  We think we have a great opportunity not only in Indonesia, following 
these steps--expanding on the Smart Power that has been used in Iraq, 
is now being used in Afghanistan--to show that people who work with the 
United States can expect not domination but help in establishing their 
own free country, their own democratically elected principles, respect 
for human rights, and a respect for religious differences so that we 
respect Muslims and they respect Christians and Jews and Buddhists and 
Hindus.
  That was the original idea of the country of Indonesia when it was 
founded in the 1940s. They laid out the principles of Pancasila--in 
which we recognize diversity; we recognize there are different 
religions; we will learn from and tolerate differences, particularly in 
religion.
  We have a challenge facing us in Indonesia and others where 
extremists want to establish shariah law, which has mullahs and 
ayatollahs who prescribe very harsh penalties for women who step out of 
place, who appear without total cover in broad daylight, where anybody 
who commits a violent crime is either thrashed or has a hand cut off or 
is put to death. This kind of backward approach to maintaining law and 
order is a threat to the civilized world and progress as we know it.
  In Indonesia, we have the opportunity to move forward, and I 
congratulate the people of Indonesia. I particularly congratulate 
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono on their 
election--reelection--on July 8, and we look forward to seeing the 
final results certified on July 27. I hope I will have the support of 
my colleagues for the robust foreign operations support for Smart 
Power. It is the wave of the future.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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