Arthur I. Cyr: Indonesia demonstrates progress in Southeast Asia

Indonesia has carried out democratic elections enormous in scale and importance, including for Americans. As usual, currently most of our media have ignored or only briefly noted this important news.

The largest one-day elections in the world occurred on April 17. Unofficial vote tallies indicate incumbent President Joko Widodo is winning with approximately 55 percent of the votes cast. Final returns, however, will not be in for some time.

Last year, the Gallup Poll found that an unprecedented 75 percent of Indonesians believe elections are honest. This is the highest percentage ever, in a long-term upward trend in confidence.

Gruesome earlier events provide important backdrop. In May 2018, the Islamic State conducted bloody terrorist attacks in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city.

Terrorism is persistent though not frequent in Indonesia. In a 2016 attack, four people died. In 2002, the worst attack killed 202 people on Bali, including many foreign tourists. These crimes have only has strengthened Indonesian hostility to terrorism. Terrorist bombings in Sri Lanka over Easter weekend further reinforce such sentiments.

Meanwhile, Malaysia parliamentary elections in May 2018 resulted in a stunning upset. The governing party was defeated and an opposition coalition successful. The Barisan Nasional and predecessor party had governed Malaysia from independence.

New Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, at 92y-ears-old, is the oldest head of government in the world. Mohamad secured a pardon for jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Indonesia’s election took place in the world’s largest nation with a Muslim majority. Geography including trade routes provides Indonesia and Malaysia with great strategic significance. The international and foreign policy implications are self-evident, for the United States and other nations.

Washington now has an opportunity to highlight Indonesia, and neighboring nations, as success stories of expanding political stability, modernization and the rule of law. In 1998, opponents forced Indonesia’s long-time autocratic president and former general Muhammad Suharto from power. Since then, the nation has had representative government.

Indonesia’s international conflicts today are largely technical and legal, notably the maritime disputes which generally involve the nations of East and Southeast Asia. Dictatorship has ended, but corruption remains a problem.

The situation used to be quite different. During the height of the Cold War, Indonesia was regarded as a pivotal leader among Third World nations. Flamboyant nationalist President Sukarno played the Soviet Union and U.S. off against one another. CIA efforts to bring Sukarno down were frustrated, a sobering experience quickly overshadowed by Vietnam.

By the mid-1960s, cooperation between Indonesia and the Soviet Union was moving forward. This development was extremely important in the decision for large-scale U.S. military intervention in Vietnam in 1965. Today, we largely have forgotten this history.

British forces, with Australian and New Zealand allies, defeated Indonesia attacks on Malaysia. Earlier, Britain defeated a virulent, aggressive Communist insurgency in Malaya, which today is part of Malaysia.

Among other factors, Britain’s military avoided introduction of massive firepower, in contrast to the U.S. military strategy in Vietnam especially from 1965. To be sure, the British military employed air strikes and artillery, but relatively selectively. Officials rightly regarded heavy bombing as counterproductive. In the same category was the American emphasis on “free-fire ones” relatively early in the Vietnam War.

The U.S. government has opportunities to strengthen ties with Indonesia, and through disciplined diplomacy throughout the enormous South and Southeast Asia regions.

All we need is the will, the skill and the maturity.

Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of “After the Cold War” (NYU Press and Macmillan). Contact him at acyr@carthage.edu.