Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06JAKARTA6026
2006-05-14 23:55:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Jakarta
Cable title:  

INDONESIA/IRAN: AHMADI-NEJAD A DIFFICULT GUEST

Tags:  PREL KNPP KISL IR ID 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 JAKARTA 006026 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/12/2016
TAGS: PREL KNPP KISL IR ID
SUBJECT: INDONESIA/IRAN: AHMADI-NEJAD A DIFFICULT GUEST

REF: A. STATE 75849

B. JAKARTA 5886

C. JAKARTA 5779

D. JAKARTA 5705

Classified By: Ambassador B. Lynn Pascoe. Reasons 1.4 (B) AND (D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 JAKARTA 006026

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/12/2016
TAGS: PREL KNPP KISL IR ID
SUBJECT: INDONESIA/IRAN: AHMADI-NEJAD A DIFFICULT GUEST

REF: A. STATE 75849

B. JAKARTA 5886

C. JAKARTA 5779

D. JAKARTA 5705

Classified By: Ambassador B. Lynn Pascoe. Reasons 1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C/NF) Summary: On May 11 the Ambassador conveyed to Dino
Patti Djalal, National Security Advisor to Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, our objections to the
GOI's initiative to create a new U.N. grouping to address
Iran's nuclear program. Djalal took our points on board, but
it is clear that the GOI still harbors aspirations to play a
role on the issue. Djalal also confided that Yudhoyono had
been taken aback by President Ahmadi-Nejad's belligerent
bluster, hard-line ideology, and disrespectful behavior
toward his Indonesian hosts during his state visit to
Jakarta. Yudhoyono now expects the Iranian President will
try to use the upcoming D-8 Summit in Bali as a platform for
drumming up support for his nuclear program, and is belatedly
worried that his own -- and Indonesia's -- international
reputation will suffer by association with Ahmadi-Nejad. On
May 11 and 12, Ahmadi-Nejad was received warmly by Indonesian
student and Muslim groups. During his meetings and public
events he described Israel as a "cancer" and a "tyrannical"
regime and repeated his assertion that Islam would supplant
liberal democracy as the world's dominant ideology, calling
on all Muslims to reject liberal democracy and the West. It
will be some weeks before the costs to Yudhoyono of the
Ahmadi-Nejad visit -- both domestically and internationally
-- become fully evident. End summary.

U.S. Rejects Indonesian Initiative
--------------


2. (C/NF) Ambassador met with Dino Patti Djalal, President
Yudhoyono's spokesman and national security advisor, on the
evening of May 11 to deliver our response to the Indonesians'
call for a new negotiating forum to address the Iranian
nuclear program (ref A). Djalal took our points on board but
asked whether Ambassador believed that was our "final"
position. Ambassador replied that it was. Djalal explained
that by including Algeria and South Africa in the proposed
forum, the GOI had hoped to make the initiative acceptable to
Iran. The Iranians, Djalal added, had suggested including

Cuba.

For SBY, A Rude Awakening
--------------


3. (C/NF) In this and subsequent conversations, an
increasingly appalled Djalal provided running updates on
Iranian President Ahmadi-Nejad's ongoing State visit to
Indonesia (refs B - D). While Ahmadi-Nejad has been received
very warmly by student and Muslim groups, his aggressive
rhetoric and breaches of protocol have alarmed and
embarrassed President Yudhoyono.


4. (C/NF) Djalal reported that Yudhoyono had started his
two-hour May 10 meeting with Ahmadi-Nejad with a one hour
tete-a-tete. Yudhoyono urged Ahmadi-Nejad to cool his
rhetoric on the nuclear issue, and said that during his
recent trip to the Middle East he had heard concerns about
the Iranian nuclear program from all his hosts. Yudhoyono
also stressed that it was important that Iran unilaterally
suspend its uranium enrichment activities, according to
Djalal. Ahmadi-Nejad replied that this was out of the
question; Iran had already done this once, and would not be
induced to do so again. He told Yudhoyono that Iran was
prepared for "any emergency," which the Indonesians took to
refer to preparations for a response to any military action
against Iran.


5. (C/NF) In the course of their discussion, Ahmadi-Nejad
told Yudhoyono that liberalism is "the enemy" and was
"holding Iran back from greatness." Djalal, clearly in a
grim frame of mind after the day's events, told the
Ambassador that the Indonesians were taken aback by these and
other remarks. The GOI, Djalal said, had supposed that
Ahmadi-Nejad might be more polite and "pragmatic" in private,

JAKARTA 00006026 002 OF 004


since he was an elected leader and a politician. There was
no give-and-take in the discussions. Yudhoyono had concluded
that Ahmadi-Nejad thrives in his fight against the West, and
that "the more pressure he gets, the more he likes it."


6. (C/NF) Djalal went on to say that Yudhoyono was in "bad
mood" and believed that Ahmadi-Nejad had abused Indonesian
hospitality by his verbal attacks on Israel and strident acts
while on Indonesian soil. It is one thing to make these
comments for domestic audiences in Iran, Djalal said, but it
is disrespectful to the host to do so while on a State visit.
(During his visit, Ahmadi-Nejad has publicly described
Israel as a "cancer" and a "tyrannical" regime "based on
threats" that would one day "vanish.") Yudhoyono now fears
that association with these tirades have may have damaged
Indonesia's international reputation.


7. (C/NF) Djalal said that the GOI now realizes that
Ahmadi-Nejad will seek to use the D-8 Summit, which begins
May 12 in Bali, as a platform to seek support for its
position on the nuclear issue. The GOI is especially
concerned about Ahmadi-Nejad's likely behavior during an
informal "retreat" event during the summit. The GOI, Djalal
said, would do everything it could to keep the nuclear issue
off the table.


8. (C/NF) The Turkish Ambassador to Indonesia called from
Bali to ask for the Ambassador's help in keeping the Iranians
from taking over the D-8 Secretary General position from the
Turkish incumbent, who is stepping down. He said Indonesian
Foreign Ministry personnel in Bali were not being helpful on
this and suggested the Indonesians should insist on occupying
the position given that they are the upcoming chair. The
Ambassador again called Djalal, who was with the President,
to encourage Indonesian action on this issue.

Ahmadi-Nejad Rude And Crude, But . . .
--------------


9. (SBU) In the meantime, Ahmadi-Nejad's crass behavior
during his Jakarta program has offended his Indonesian hosts'
strong sense of decorum and protocol. At a joint press
conference with President Yudhoyono on May 10, Ahmadi-Nejad
behaved as if his host were not present. In response to the
first question asked by a journalist, Ahmadi-Nejad gave a
half-hour harangue on the nuclear issue. Local media noted
that President Yudhoyono, and Djalal who MC'ed the press
conference became visibly annoyed as the Iranian droned on.
On Thursday, May 11, leaders of Indonesia's Parliament were
angered when Ahmadi-Nejad, citing questionable security
reasons, canceled a meeting at the last minute and proposed
to hold the meeting in the hotel where he was staying -
located only 200 meters from the Parliament building. (The
meeting was later rescheduled for May 12.) Ahmadi-Nejad
garnered more bad press when he kept a group of editors
waiting for over two hours to hold an "afternoon tea"
roundtable interview.

. . . A Big Man On Campus
--------------


10. (SBU) Other events went better, from Ahmadi-Nejad's
perspective. Speaking before an enthusiastic group of
students at the University of Indonesia in Depok, the Iranian
President once again defended his country's nuclear program
and attacked Israel. The audience reportedly booed each time
the West, the U.S., or Israel was mentioned. Some carried
banners reading, "Iran In Our Hearts" and "Nuclear Power For
Peace." Ahmadi-Nejad generated loud applause when,
responding to a question he found to his liking, he
spontaneously offered a student a scholarship to study in
Iran.


11. (C/NF) Ahmadi-Nejad's May 11 at the State Islamic
University was, if anything, even more enthusiastic. A
contact told us that students filled the university's 1,500
seat auditorium to capacity in order hear Ahmadi-Nejad's
speech, while several hundred more listened to the speech
outside through speakers. He contrasted the exceedingly warm
and enthusiastic reception, punctuated with regular bursts of

JAKARTA 00006026 003 OF 004


sustained applause for Ahmadi-Nejad and booing at the mention
of the U.S., with the correct hearing and pointed questions
received by Undersecretary Karen Hughes in her October 2005
visit to the same venue. He said the main issues that came
up in Ahmadi-Nejad's speech and lengthy Q-and-A session were
Iran's nuclear program, which student questioners praised
effusively, an alleged American double standard toward
Iranian and Israeli nuclear programs, and claims of USG
hostility and aggression toward Muslims. The contact quoted
the Iranian leader as telling the cheering and whooping
students, "we are talking about nuclear energy but we should
be talking about you - you are the nuclear energy of the
future."

Warm Welcome From Muslim Groups
--------------


12. (SBU) On May 12, Ahmadi-Nejad began the day with a
courtesy call on a small group of leaders of Muhammadiyah,
Indonesia's second-largest Islamic organization. A group
insider told us the meeting had been all but imposed on
Muhammadiyah the previous day by the GOI Minister of Research
and Technology, and that Muhammadiyah Chairman Din Syamsuddin
did not bother to change a previously-scheduled Thursday
travel departure in order to personally host the Iranian.
After the low-key 40-minute event (the Iranians reportedly
did not want a press conference),an Indonesian attendee told
us Ahmadi-Nejad spoke almost exclusively on the importance of
Muslim brotherhood and unity in order to confront the forces
of Western liberal democracy. The Iranian leader stated that
liberal democracy was falling apart, as evidenced by its
cruel and hypocritical treatment of Palestinians and its
alliance with Israel, and predicted it would follow Marxism
as a failed ideology. He proclaimed that Islam would
supplant liberal democracy as the world's dominant ideology
and called on all Muslims to reject liberal democracy and the
West in order to make this a reality. Iran's nuclear program
was not discussed. Apart from identifying America as the
West's leading proponent of liberal democracy and criticizing
its treatment of Palestinians, Ahmadi-Nejad reportedly made
no other reference to the U.S.


13. (C/NF) In contrast to Muhammadiyah's second-tier
reception of the Iranian leader, rival Islamic group
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) laid on red-carpet treatment for
Ahmadi-Nejad. NU Chairman Hasyim Muzadi, who had recently
visited Tehran as an Iranian government guest, hosted a
gathering of religious and political leaders at NU
headquarters. Although Muzadi had reportedly invited a
veritable who's-who of public figures to attend the event, an
NU participant told us that only a few political heavyweights
such as former Speaker of Parliament Akbar Tanjung, current
MPR Chair Hidayat Nur Wahid, and a number of parliamentarians
joined NU officials and clerics for the event.
Representatives of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front
(FPI) and Abu Bakar Ba'asyir's Islamic Mujahidin Council
(MMI) were also reportedly in attendance, along with
officials of other small Islamic organizations. The NU
participant told us Ahmadi-Nejad spoke at length in defense
of Iran's nuclear program, asking rhetorically why Iran's
"peaceful program for energy and economic development" is
challenged by the only country on earth to have ever used
nuclear weapons to murder innocent people. Ahmadi-Nejad also
reportedly encouraged Indonesian Muslim youth, particularly
girls, to focus on study of science and technology in order
to counter Western domination. The Iranian leader later
performed congregational Friday noon prayers with various
Muslim leaders at the National Mosque and gave a short speech
at the end of the prayer.

Comment
--------------


14. (C/NF) Indonesia still has a need to believe it has a
role in resolving the Iranian nuclear issue; this may well be
related to its ambitions for a seat on the UN Security
Council. Its real room for maneuver, however, is limited by
the lack of sophistication of the Indonesian body politic on
the issue. Most Indonesians appear to view Ahmadi-Nejad's
visit in simplistic terms: the West believes it can do

JAKARTA 00006026 004 OF 004


whatever it likes in the nuclear field, but it wants to
prevent Iran from engaging in nuclear research; Iran has
stood up to America, which has been bullying Muslim countries
ever since the September 11, 2001 attacks. In this
simplistic outlook, Indonesia, by offering Ahmadi-Nejad a
warm reception, is siding with an Islamic brother nation and
remaining true to its Non-Aligned Movement heritage.


15. (C/NF) For others, Ahmadi-Nejad demonstrated an
independence from the U.S. and other foreign power that they
believe Indonesia should emulate. This seemed particularly
evident in the student gatherings. But it also has resonated
in older nationalistic circles; former Indonesian Army Chief
of Staff General Ryamizard Ryacudu -- always quick to seek
foreign conspiracies as the reason for Indonesia's problems
-- told the press "We should have the courage to confront
foreign intervention like Iran does in confronting the U.S."


16. (C/NF) It will be some weeks before the costs of the
Ahmadi-Nejad visit -- both in terms of Indonesia's
international reputation for "moderation" and the extent to
which it bolstered Yudhoyono's internal critics -- become
fully evident. There can be no doubt, however, the Iranians
have succeeded in circumscribing the Indonesian room for
maneuver on the nuclear issue. End comment.
PASCOE