Many Indonesians are hoping for a greater understanding and better relationship between the United States and Muslims under an Obama presidency, writes AMY CHEW

BARACK Obama was 6 years old when he first arrived in Indonesia in 1967, yet his memory of the world's most populous Muslim nation remains vivid in his mind.

In his book Dreams From My Father, he describes the country's landscape, people and poverty with striking detail and sensitivity: "There was the empty look on the faces of farmers the year the rains never came... and their desperation the following year when the rains lasted for over a month, swelling the rivers and fields... as chunks of their huts washed away," Obama wrote.

He counted the children of farmers, servants and low-level bureaucrats, many of them Muslims, among his best friends, as they ran through the streets morning and night.

Such memories of his have led many Indonesians to hope for a greater understanding and better relationship between the United States and Muslims under an Obama presidency.
"Obama has won acceptability from practically all mainstream Muslim leaders in Indonesia even though he is not Muslim," says Prof Azyumardi Azra of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University.

"He has a very good chance of rehabilitating America's dignity in the eyes of Muslims."

Azyumardi, a noted Muslim scholar, believes Obama's childhood in Indonesia is what has imbued him with a sensitivity to people of different religious and cultural backgrounds.

"(Obama) is in a very good position, personally and as president, to become a bridge between the West and the Muslim world," he says.

Obama moved to Indonesia when his mother, Ann Dunham, married an Indonesian Muslim by the name of Lolo Soetoro.

Lolo, wrote Obama, treated him like his own son, taught him how to box and to cope with the harsh realities of life.

"Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths," he wrote.

"And his knowledge of the world seemed inexhaustible. He knew more elusive things, ways of managing the emotions I felt, ways to explain fate's constant mysteries."

Sentiment aside, however, analysts caution against having overly high expectations of an Obama administration attaching great importance to Indonesia. "We cannot expect Obama to treat Indonesia differently from any other country," says Ayzumardi.

Indonesia, say some analysts, does not hold the same importance to the US as it did during the Cold War, when it was regarded as an important buffer against the spread of communism in the region.

"In the past, Indonesia was used as a buffer against communism in mainland Asia. When communism collapsed in 1989, Indonesia lost its importance," says independent political commentator Hasyim Wahid.

Economically, Indonesia also lost some traction with the US when the country became a net oil importer for the first time in 2004. "Indonesia used to be an important oil exporter but now we have become a net oil importer," says Wahid.

"The US today places great importance on the Middle East, which supplies much of its oil and gas needs. This is followed by China and then Africa because there is also oil in those regions."

The US consumes 25 per cent of the world's oil and gas resources. As oil prices started moving up two years ago, the need to secure oil and gas took on a greater urgency.

As the world's most populous and moderate Muslim country, Indonesia is often viewed as a moderating force against Islamic extremism.

The moderate and tolerant Islam practised in Indonesia has made the country an important strategic partner for the US in its war against terror, particularly in the fight against the ideology of hatred and intolerance espoused by extremists.

"Indonesia is a strategic partner who can play a bridge between cultures, interfaith. We are positioned quite uniquely within the region itself as to how Islam is an asset," says Teuku Faizasyah, spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Department.

"We are a beacon of democracy as a country with the largest Muslim population. We also show a real case where Islam and democracy can live side by side, peacefully. We want to project that Islam and democracy do not make strange bedfellows."

But Wahid, the grandson of the founder of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organisation, which claims 40 million followers, disagrees. "Moderate Islam in Indonesia has been eroded by the rise of syariah in parts of the country, terrorist bombings and attacks on minorities like Ahmadiyah by Muslim radicals," he says.

"You cannot take moderate Islam for granted in Indonesia any more."

In recent years, more than 30 regencies out of 440 throughout the country have passed by-laws based on syariah principles, such as requiring both Muslim and non-Muslim women to cover their heads, forbidding women to leave their homes after dark without being accompanied by a male relative and many others.

Such by-laws run counter to the constitution, which safeguards the country as a plural and secular state.

"What concerns the US about Indonesia are the former mujahidin who went to Afghanistan to fight against the Russian invasion and have now returned home," says Wahid.

Regionally, a major concern for the US will be the security of the Straits of Malacca. More than 50,000 ships ply the 800km-long straits every year, transporting 30 per cent of the world's trade in goods and 80 per cent of Japan's oil needs.

"In terms of Southeast Asia," Wahid says, "the US' key interest is the Straits of Malacca, because it is a vital shipping route, and Singapore, because the island state is a long-time ally.

"The rest of the region is not significant for the US."