VZCZCXRO8141
OO RUEHDT RUEHPB
DE RUEHJA #1392/01 2331156
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 211156Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3135
INFO RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAWJB/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 001392 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP 
NSC FOR J. BADER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER KDEM ID
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR CODEL REYES VISIT AUGUST 26-28 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  Representative Reyes, the staff of 
Embassy Jakarta warmly welcomes your visit.  Indonesia and 
the United States are key partners in promoting democracy and 
security in Southeast Asia.  Ten years of political and 
economic reform have made Indonesia democratic, stable, and 
increasingly confident about its leadership role in Southeast 
Asia.  Indonesia has held successful, free and fair 
elections; has weathered the global financial crisis; and is 
tackling internal security threats.  After the terrorist 
attacks of July 17, the Indonesian government and people are 
resolute in overcoming the terrorist threat.  Our 
Comprehensive Partnership with Indonesia will bolster 
Indonesia's reform efforts and advance U.S. interests in the 
region.  The visit of CODEL Reyes will happen at an exciting 
time in U.S.-Indonesian relations.  END SUMMARY. 
 
A REGIONAL ANCHOR 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Indonesia is the natural leader of Southeast Asia. 
The success of Indonesia's democratic and reform process has 
given the country new confidence in its stability, 
sovereignty and territorial integrity.  This new confidence 
can help the United States work better with Indonesia to 
achieve our aims in Asia.  Indonesia sits at the crossroads 
of transit between East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East 
and will be critical to ensuring balanced and stable 
relations in the region.  As home of the ASEAN Secretariat, 
Jakarta seeks a greater leadership role in ASEAN, and it is 
succeeding.  GOI officials spearheaded efforts to enshrine 
democracy and human rights in the ASEAN Charter.  Indonesia 
has played an important but largely behind-the-scenes role in 
encouraging democracy and human rights in Burma.  President 
Yudhoyono's Bali Democracy Forum, attended by Burma, is meant 
to lure the Burmese regime into learning about the benefits 
of democracy.  During late July ASEAN meetings, Foreign 
Minister Wirajuda pressed the Burmese to release jailed 
democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. 
 
A VIBRANT DEMOCRACY 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Indonesian April 9 legislative and July 8 
presidential elections were fair, free, and peaceful.  The 
results of the legislative and presidential elections 
affirmed incumbent President Yudhoyono's reformist policies. 
In April, President Yudhoyono's Partai Demokrat (PD) won a 
plurality in legislative elections, with 20.85 percent of the 
popular vote (and over a quarter of the 560 parliamentary 
seats).  This was followed by President Yudhoyono's landslide 
reelection victory in July.  Seen as the reformist, clean 
candidate, he further shored up his credentials by choosing a 
non-partisan, economically savvy, U.S.-educated technocrat as 
running mate.  Together they captured 60.8 percent of the 
vote and 28 of the nation's 33 provinces. Vice President 
Jusuf Kalla and former president Megawati Sukarnoputri 
challenged Yudhoyono in the presidential elections.  Neither 
Kalla nor Megawati gained enough votes to force President 
Yudhoyono to a second round of run-off elections. 
 
A VIBRANT ECONOMY 
 
¶4.  (SBU) With estimated growth of four percent for 2009, 
Indonesia is the third-fastest growing economy in the G-20. 
Indonesians are proud of their transition over little more 
than a decade from economic basket case during the Asian 
financial crisis to member of the G-20, coordinating global 
responses to the crisis.  Although some of Indonesia's 
responses to the economic crisis have been protectionist, new 
opportunities for U.S. businesses are emerging.  Boeing has a 
huge order book with Indonesian airlines.  General Electric 
and Electro-Motive are competing for a several hundred 
million dollar locomotive deal.  The Export-Import Bank is 
considering infrastructure and clean energy facilities to 
finance U.S. business deals and looking for ways to decrease 
the costs for lending in Indonesia.  And OPIC is negotiating 
a new Investment Incentive Agreement with Indonesia. 
 
OVERCOMING SECURITY THREATS 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The Government of Indonesia's (GOI) response to the 
July 17 terrorist attacks has been swift.  The GOI has 
heightened security nationwide, and the INP is working 
steadily to find the masterminds of the attack.  While 
Indonesia's counterterrorism efforts have been impressive and 
its capacity to fight terrorism within its borders has 
 
JAKARTA 00001392  002 OF 003 
 
 
improved steadily, continued vigilance is needed, as the 
events of July 17 demonstrated.  Malaysian Jemaah Islamiyah 
(JI) operative and recruiter Noordin Mohammed Top, who is 
suspected of involvement in every anti-Western terrorist 
attack in Indonesia since 2002, including the July 17 
bombings, remains at large.  Indonesia's security posture is 
generally stronger than it was prior to the July 17 attacks, 
and Mission has determined that a new travel alert is not 
necessary at this time.  The attacks have not affected the 
planning for a potential visit by President Obama in November. 
 
U.S. SUPPORTS INDONESIA'S COUNTERTERRORISM EFFORTS 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Until the bombings on July 17, Indonesia 
experienced three and a half years without a major terrorist 
incident.  The Indonesian government's counterterrorism 
efforts drastically reduced the ability of militant groups in 
Indonesia to carry out attacks, and the GOI's has redoubled 
its efforts since the July 17 bombings.  U.S. assistance has 
been an important component of this success.  The Embassy has 
worked to build the investigative support for and forensic 
capabilities of the Indonesian National Police (INP) through 
numerous developmental programs administered by Department of 
Justice's International Criminal Investigative Training and 
Assistance Program.  The Indonesian National Police, 
including elements of the USG-funded Special Detachment-88, 
have effectively disrupted the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) 
terrorist network and are helping to investigate the Marriott 
and Ritz-Carlton bombings.  The USG-funded Attorney General's 
Task Force on Terrorism and Transnational Crime has 
successfully prosecuted 64 terrorists, including 43 JI 
members since 2006, and DOJ enhanced the prosecutorial 
capacity of the task force. 
 
JAKARTA RESOLUTE AFTER BOMBINGS 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Indonesians remain resolute to continue with life 
as usual in spite of the terrorist attacks.  Although 
security has been heightened across Jakarta, residents have 
continued with their lives, including a weekend ritual of 
flooding the shopping malls.  The impact of the attacks on 
the Indonesian economy overall have been minimal, and the 
Indonesian currency and stock market showed only a slight 
decline on July 17 and had rebounded by July 21.  The tourism 
sector will likely take the greatest hit, given the 
Australian and Singaporean travel warnings.  On the 
Indonesian national day, August 17, Indonesians used the 
celebrations to express their support for counterterrorism 
efforts, wearing signs bearing Noordin M. Top's image and the 
phrases: "wanted," "exterminate terrorists," and "beware of 
terrorists."  The Indonesian online community, "Indonesia 
unite," has used their motto "We are not afraid," to continue 
support for Indonesia, promote tourism, and provide support 
for local businesses. 
 
A COMPREHENSIVE PARTNERSHIP 
 
¶8.  (SBU) President Yudhoyono proposed that the U.S. and 
Indonesia launch a Comprehensive Partnership in his November 
2008 speech in Washington.  Secretary Clinton's visit in 
February 2009 was a critical step in beginning a dialogue 
with Indonesians about the key elements of that partnership. 
The United States and Indonesia will have many of the 
elements in place in time for President Obama's proposed 
visit to Indonesia in November.  Under a Comprehensive 
Partnership, we will strengthen Indonesia's democratic 
institutions and capacity to promote democracy beyond its 
borders.  The partnership will allow us to expand our already 
robust regional security cooperation and deepen our 
cooperation with the Indonesian military to enhance its 
capability to provide disaster relief and participate in 
international peacekeeping operations.  We will promote the 
people-to-people ties that are critical to the success of our 
partnership, including bringing the Peace Corps back to 
Indonesia and expanding education cooperation.  Indonesia is 
richly endowed with biodiversity and natural resources. 
However, Indonesia the one of the world's largest greenhouse 
gas emitters.  In recent years, Indonesia has taken a 
stronger leadership position on protecting its environment. 
We are discussing with the Indonesians commitments to reduce 
emissions from deforestation, cooperation on food security 
focusing on fisheries, and combating emerging and tropical 
disease whose spread will be exacerbated by climate change in 
this region. 
 
JAKARTA 00001392  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
INDONESIA: IMPORTANT U.S. PARTNER IN DEMOCRACY 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Our security relationship with Indonesia is only 
one dimension of a robust partnership.  Indonesia's 
democratic institutions are flourishing.  Indonesian consumer 
confidence rose in July to its highest level in nearly five 
years.  Although much work remains to be done in educational 
reform, poverty alleviation, combating corruption, improving 
security, and reducing environmental degradation, Indonesia 
is emerging as a leader in ASEAN, G-20 and other multilateral 
fora on the global stage.  Our Comprehensive Partnership with 
the world's third largest democracy is an opportunity for the 
United States to promote its interests bilaterally, 
regionally, and internationally. 
 
 
HUME