Vaudine England, Jakarta – Indonesia's dangerous flirtation with anti-Americanism is gathering pace in the wake of fresh threats to American tourists and the decision by the US Embassy in Jakarta to stay closed until at least tomorrow.
Analysts say the conflict is a product of personality clashes and political infighting in Jakarta, and it is already extracting a high price for Indonesia with the falling currency and lost tourism and investment.
The damaging rhetoric reached menacing heights at the weekend when gangs of unidentified men checked hotel guest registers in the central Javanese city of Solo (also called Surakarta), threatening to expel any Americans they found.
"About 40 or 50 of them came in ... they were wearing these uniforms, with the words Lasykar Islam Hizbullah [a militant Islamic group] on them. They said that if they found American guests they would warn them to leave the country within 48 hours," the operations manager of the Lord Inn, Budi Chandra, said. "They were calm and did not seem to want to cause trouble. But they were very clear on what they wanted. I gave them the guest list print-out as there were really no Americans staying with us. They became cool after that."
They also left leaflets calling on all US citizens, including US Ambassador Robert Gelbard, to leave the country immediately or face "the consequences".
The US Embassy in Jakarta remains the focus of Muslim demonstrations decrying American support for Israel, and Mr Gelbard is paying the price for his outspoken comments on Indonesian affairs.
"All the gains that we've made in the US-Indonesia relationship are being wiped away," said Arian Ardie, chairman of the external relations committee at the American Chamber of Commerce. "Our strong bilateral relationship over many years is now held hostage to the narrow political interests of the Jakarta elite."
Attention has focused on a spectacular war of words between Mr Gelbard and Defence Minister Mahfud Mahmoddin. But the US-Indonesia troubles go back to the time of former defence minister Juwono Sudarsono, with whom Mr Gelbard also crossed swords. The bilateral row has since become one of personality and ego, some analysts maintain.
The larger context is the continuing power struggle within the Jakarta elite, in which anti-foreigner sentiment has become a bargaining tool wielded by the military-backed nationalist constituency in Indonesian politics.
The goal is to weaken President Abdurrahman Wahid's Government by depriving it of crucial foreign support. The technique is to employ the claimed legitimacy of Islamic symbolism to justify the bully-boy tactics which are so often a manifestation of rivalry within the elite.
Parliamentary procedures to prosecute Mr Wahid in two financial scandals, known as "Brunei-gate" and "Bulog-gate", are faltering, and efforts by Mr Wahid's opponents in Parliament to call a special session to impeach him cannot work without the help of Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri's parliamentary block.
So far, Ms Megawati remains publicly on Mr Wahid's side, and she came out in support of her boss in a weekend speech, saying his critics did nothing but complain. At the same time, Mr Wahid has bowed to her nationalist sentiment on the Irian Jaya independence struggle by allowing her orders to police to pull down independence flags to take precedence over his promises of tolerance.
"So the constitutional means to unseat Wahid are failing," a political analyst said. "His opponents can now only play to public opinion and fear, to the nationalist fervour if you will, employing extra-constitutional means in the hope of effecting a transfer of power."