Lewis M. Simons on Southeast Asia: The Next Front

What irony - here's Mr Simons railing against American disinterest in the region, and then he refers to the President of Indonesia as the 'man with an unpronounceable name' - despite having spent enough time in Kuala Lumpur to pick up the local lingo.

How's that as a sign of entrenched American disinterest?

Thanks for the video. I'm from the Republic of Indonesia, and just to let you know, this is also an issue in the Republic of Indonesia for all non-muslims. The system of democracy and Republic was already being in danger since the first conception of the country by Soekarno. This is due to the large influence of Middle East Islam in the western part of Indonesia brought in by the Arabs before the Dutch colonial forces came. They were spread by means of "Pondok Pesantren" (Islamic schools) and hastened by the distrust of lower economy class people towards the governance system (colonial Dutch, early years of Soekarno and Soeharto). (A bit of exception is in the Central Java region, where the Islam ideology is also influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism which makes them relatively peaceful and not aggressive in terms of expansion.)

In different regions, there are different population of religion, they live relatively peacefully due to the Hindu/Buddhist uniting history of the archipelago. But the aggressive method of Middle East Islam in expanding their doctrines is quite worrying. The clerics are quite smart in their expansion campaign. They target the lower economy class people who are not happy with the condition of their living.

Unhappy people exists in every developing country, this is a natural thing in the process of a nation's development. In Indonesia, the case of extremist ideology expansion is worse, because the people doesn't have enough information and education, therefore the mindset of the lower economy class is easily inserted with Middle Eastern extremist Islam ideology.

Because the Republic's system is democracy, Islam or any other "official" religion (Catholics, Protestants, Hinduism, Buddhism) can promote themselves freely. However the characteristic of Middle East Islam in Indonesia, is that they employ the most aggressive method in trying to make everyone obey or conform with syariah law. The republic have had numerous civil wars in the past concerning these extremists (read:Darul Islam / Islamic militia forces rebellion in Indonesia in the 1950s) This is WORRYING that they are trying to repeat their effort in a more subtle but more damaging way to the development process.

During Soeharto's regime, the Islamic extremists key people were opressed and exiled because they create instability in the region. But after Soeharto was not in power in 1998, so came back the fundamentalist Islam clerics such as Abu Bakar Bashir, and everyone in their group, after taking refuge in syariah country like Malaysia. Their return explains why there are increased number of bombings and terrorist attacks. Again, this is WORRYING. I have no solution, only could share this story of struggle for democracy. Indonesia was a beautiful country back then in the Hindu/Buddhist era, I will defend this status with all my effort, and I love this Republic forever.

worried,
Central Java