Dean Yates, Jakarta – The United States is pleased Indonesian police have re-arrested militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir but Washington should not have to apologise for the controversy over its view of him, the US envoy to Jakarta said.
In an interview on Wednesday, Ambassador Ralph Boyce said the United States had a key role to play in the global war on terror, and that meant speaking out.
He expressed optimism that Islam in the world's most populous Muslim nation would remain moderate, adding that last month's peaceful parliamentary elections were a boost for political stability.
Police arrested Bashir on Friday over suspected terror links, including to the 2002 Bali bombings, as he walked out of jail after serving 18 months for lesser charges. Bashir has been accused of leading the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network.
"We welcome the decision by the police to re-question him and to take the action they did last week," Boyce said.
"We do believe there are some concerns that still need to be addressed in terms of what his role has been vis-a-vis JI and some of the tragic events that have happened here." In the weeks leading up to his arrest, public support grew for the 65-year-old preacher over accusations the United States, and Boyce in particular, were trying to interfere in Indonesia's internal affairs by having Bashir kept behind bars.
Washington has accused him of deep involvement in terror.
Boyce said the debate over Bashir had been coloured by the accusations of US interference, which he denied.
"In an interdependent world, in a global war on terror, where the US clearly has a lead role in what is going on in that campaign, I think it's important we do express our views on how that war on terror is going," Boyce said.
Some analysts say going after Bashir again poses a challenge to Indonesia, especially with sentiment for Washington so low due to the war in Iraq and other US policies in the Middle East.
Police have said Bashir would be questioned about attacks including the Bali blasts, which killed 202 people. Previous charges against Bashir of treason and of heading JI, a Southeast Asian militant network, were dismissed or overturned. Bashir denies links to terrorism.
Moderate Islam to remain
His rapid rise to fame coupled with atrocities such as the Bali bombings have given the impression outside Indonesia that radical Islam was gaining ground.
Boyce said he believed militant voices, which have long existed in Indonesia, had merely been louder than others in the country's transition to democracy.
"It's so clear to anyone who takes the time to reach out that this country's brand of Islam is uniquely Indonesian, that it really is the moderate, open and tolerant brand," he said.
Boyce said Indonesia had made plenty of progress on the political front, successfully holding its second consecutive free parliamentary election on April 5. Indonesia's first direct presidential election is scheduled for July 5.
"Unless things go radically off track it seems to me there is a national consensus to follow the process through in whatever direction it may lead," he said.
But Indonesia needed to do more to boost investment to create work for new job seekers each year, he said.
"What is ticking I think is that there are millions of people coming into the workforce on a net basis every year that have to find jobs and, absent major increases in domestic and foreign investment, that's ... a concern for anybody that values stability," he said.