Barack Obama The Audacity of Hope v4.0 com

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sneakers for Nike and shirts for the Gap. Bali became the resort of choice for
surfers and rock stars, with five-star hotels, Internet connections, and a
Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. By the early nineties, Indonesia was
considered an �Asian tiger,� the next great success story of a globalizing
world.
Even the darker aspects of Indonesian life-its politics and human rights
record-showed signs of improvement. When it came to sheer brutality, the
post-1967 Suharto regime never reached the levels of Iraq under Saddam
Hussein; with his subdued, placid style, the Indonesian president would never
attract the attention that more demonstrative strongmen like Pinochet or the
Shah of Iran did. By any measure, though, Suharto�s rule was harshly
repressive. Arrests and torture of dissidents were common, a free press
nonexistent, elections a mere formality. When ethnically based secessionist
movements sprang up in areas like Aceh, the army targeted not just guerrillas
but civilians for swift retribution-murder, rape, villages set afire. And
throughout the seventies and eighties, all this was done with the knowledge,
if not outright approval, of U.S. administrations.
But with the end of the Cold War, Washington�s attitudes began to change.
The State Department began pressuring Indonesia to curb its human rights
abuses. In 1992, after Indonesian military units massacred peaceful
demonstrators in Dili, East Timor, Congress terminated military aid to the
Indonesian government. By 1996, Indonesian reformists had begun taking to the
streets, openly talking about corruption in high offices, the military�s
excesses, and the need for free and fair elections.
Then, in 1997, the bottom fell out. A run on currencies and securities
throughout Asia engulfed an Indonesian economy already corroded by decades of
corruption. The rupiah�s value fell 85 percent in a matter of months.
Indonesian companies that had borrowed in dollars saw their balance sheets
collapse. In exchange for a $43 billion bailout, the Western-dominated
International Monetary Fund, or IMF, insisted on a series of austerity
measures (cutting government subsidies, raising interest rates) that would
lead the price of such staples as rice and kerosene to nearly double. By the
time the crisis was over, Indonesia�s economy had contracted almost 14
percent. Riots and demonstrations grew so severe that Suharto was finally
forced to resign, and in 1998 the country�s first free elections were held,
with some forty-eight parties vying for seats and some ninety-three million
people casting their votes.
On the surface, at least, Indonesia has survived the twin shocks of
financial meltdown and democratization. The stock market is booming, and a
second national election went off without major incident, leading to a
peaceful transfer of power. If corruption remains endemic and the military
remains a potent force, there�s been an explosion of independent newspapers
and political parties to channel discontent.
On the other hand, democracy hasn�t brought a return to prosperity. Per
capita income is nearly 22 percent less than it was in 1997. The gap between
rich and poor, always cavernous, appears to have worsened. The average
Indonesian�s sense of deprivation is amplified by the Internet and satellite
TV, which beam in images of the unattainable riches of London, New York, Hong
Kong, and Paris in exquisite detail. And anti-American sentiment, almost
nonexistent during the Suharto years, is now widespread, thanks in part to
perceptions that New York speculators and the IMF purposely triggered the
Asian financial crisis. In a 2003 poll, most Indonesians had a higher opinion
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of Osama bin Laden than they did of George W. Bush.
All of which underscores perhaps the most profound shift in Indonesia-the
growth of militant, fundamentalist Islam in the country. Traditionally,
Indonesians practiced a tolerant, almost syncretic brand of the faith, infused
with the Buddhist, Hindu, and animist traditions of earlier periods. Under the
watchful eye of an explicitly secular Suharto government, alcohol was
permitted, non-Muslims practiced their faith free from persecution, and
women-sporting skirts or sarongs as they rode buses or scooters on the way to
work-possessed all the rights that men possessed. Today, Islamic parties make
up one of the largest political blocs, with many calling for the imposition of
sharia, or Islamic law. Seeded by funds from the Middle East, Wahhabist
clerics, schools, and mosques now dot the countryside. Many Indonesian women
have adopted the head coverings so familiar in the Muslim countries of North
Africa and the Persian Gulf; Islamic militants and self-proclaimed �vice [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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