Mixed reviews of Obama's speech in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia — In a much-anticipated speech focusing on development, democracy and religion, President Obama sought on Wednesday to strengthen America’s ties with Indonesia, a rising Asian power with the world’s largest Muslim population. But his intended audience was also elsewhere in the Muslim world, especially in the Middle East, where he began talking last year of a fresh start between the West and the Islamic world.

Muslim leaders here praised Mr. Obama’s knowledgeable and warm approach to Indonesia but expressed doubts that his speech would resonate in the wider Muslim world. Too few concrete changes in American foreign policy, they said, had followed previous speeches in Egypt and Turkey.

“President Obama didn’t offer any new major points,” said Azyumardi Azra, a prominent Muslim thinker and the director of the graduate school at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University. “There is no breakthrough, for example, to accelerate a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine.”

“Many people had been expecting that he would address one of the stumbling blocks to the peace process, like Israel’s construction of new housing,” Mr. Azra added.

Mixing the personal, political and religious, Mr. Obama spoke of Indonesia’s history of religious tolerance and its commitment to democracy and diversity before a receptive audience of 6,500 mostly young people at the University of Indonesia. In a 30-minute speech, the president underscored the shared values between the United States and Indonesia, which is known for its tradition of moderate Islam.

Mr. Obama spoke about hearing the “call to prayer across Jakarta,” where he lived for four years as a boy. He referred several times to his Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, who, he said, “was raised a Muslim” but “firmly believed that all religions were worthy of respect.”

Slamet Effendi Yusuf, a deputy chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, one of Indonesia’s largest Islamic organizations, liked the speech “because it showed that Obama knows about the people of Indonesia, our cultures and traditions, and mentioned what we have in common.”

“He was arguing against the people who say that there is something incompatible between Islamic and Christian civilizations,” he said.

Although 90 percent of Indonesia’s nearly 240 million citizens are Muslim, the country’s constitution recognizes the world’s major religions, and for decades political Islam had little role here. But in the last two decades, as Indonesians have become increasingly religious, events in the Middle East and other Muslim regions have gained more traction here.

Mr. Obama talked about the “issues that have caused tensions for many years,” mentioning the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. He said that the United States had made “some progress” in those areas since Mr. Obama gave his first speech on the United States and Islam 17 months in Cairo.

But Din Syamsuddin, the head of Muhammadiyah, one of Indonesia’s biggest Islamic organizations, said the president offered nothing fresh here.

“His speech in Cairo raised a lot of hopes, but his speech today was repetitive and redundant,” Mr. Din said.

Anis Matta, the secretary general of the Prosperous Justice Party, Indonesia’s biggest Islamist political party, said that Mr. Obama’s outreach to Muslims here and elsewhere would be influenced by a single issue.

“What will Obama do in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?” Mr. Matta said. “If we don’t see any progress, what he says is just a speech.”

Some experts said Mr. Obama’s premise of reaching out to the wider Muslim world by showing that the United States and Indonesia share values was flawed. Despite the big population of Muslims here, Indonesia’s influence has never extended beyond Southeast Asia.

“Of course, Indonesia does have a seat in the Muslim world, but to what extent it can influence political processes in the Muslim world’s heartland is a big question,” said Rizal Sukma, executive director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an independent policy-oriented group in Jakarta. “Basically, we are not perceived as sitting at the main table in the Muslim world.”

Becoming the United States’ model Muslim democracy also made some Indonesians uneasy.

“The U.S. is trying to use Indonesia as an arena from where it could rebuild its relations with the Muslim world, but that’s dangerous,” said Bantarto Bandoro, a political scientist at the University of Indonesia. “Indonesia might be seen as being co-opted by the United States.”

In his speech, Mr. Obama won fans with stories about growing up in a Jakarta that existed before most of the audience members were born. “Indonesia is a part of me,” he said, doubling the effect by delivering the line in Indonesian.

Harish Muhammad, 18, a computer science major, said he had always believed that the United States was “anti-Islam” but that Mr. Obama had made him rethink his assumptions.

Others remained skeptical, however.

“Obama talked about how Indonesia is part of him,” said Agustina Retnaningsih, 37, a graduate student in pharmacology. “But it makes me wonder: Which part? Where do you put Indonesia and Islam in you and your policy?”