NAMRU ISSUE MIRED IN POLITICAL AMBITIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 000860

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DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, G, G/OES, AIAG C.PATTERSON
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OSD FOR P.IPSEN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/30/2018
TAGS: PREL MARR TBIO AMED ID EAGR KLIG
SUBJECT: NAMRU ISSUE MIRED IN POLITICAL AMBITIONS

REF: A. JAKARTA 804


B. JAKARTA 673

C. JAKARTA 575 AND PREVIOUS

Classified By: Pol/C Joseph Legend Novak, reasons 1.4(b+d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: The basis of Health Minister Siti Fadilah
Supari's vitriolic public attacks against the U.S. Naval
Medical Research Unit in Jakarta (NAMRU-2) is her desire to
make it a populist/vote-getting issue in the run-up to the
2009 national elections. Our failure to respond to
Indonesia's draft MOU on NAMRU's continued presence here
gives her an open field to make mischief.


2. (C) SUMMARY (Con'd): Given rising discontent with the
nation's broken health care system, NAMRU-2 is the one
populist issue the grandiose minister can use to burnish her
weak credentials. Now that recent Mission outreach has begun
to set the record straight regarding Supari's allegations, we
would be best served to sit this one out in the public arena
while pursing private diplomacy to educate policy-makers who
can be influential on the issue. We also need to continue to
try to keep NAMRU's future separate from the sample sharing
issue, resisting the Health Minister's efforts to conflate
the two. END SUMMARY.


3. (C) In the run-up to the 2009 elections, Health Minister
Supari has latched onto the presence of NAMRU-2 in Indonesia
to appeal to nationalist and populist sentiment. Supari was
nominated for her current post by Syafi'i Maarif, former
chairman of Indonesia's second-largest Islamic organization
Muhammadiyah. She also is close to Maarif's predecessor at
Muhammadiyah, populist politician Amien Rais, a distant
relative. Now chair of the small Islamic National Mandate
Party (PAN),Rais is a leading critic of foreign direct
investment. Supari's views on sample sharing and NAMRU are
possibly inspired by Rais' platform of criticizing foreign
economic interests, according to Endy Bayuni, Jakarta Post
chief editor and an insightful political analyst.

BROKEN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM


4. (C) A Muhammadiyah insider, Piet Khaidir, posited that
Supari has honed in on NAMRU-2 to promote her own political
ambitions. She wants to remain health minister after the
2009 elections. Other sources have told us that she has vice
presidential aspirations. While NAMRU-2 is not a major
popular issue in and of itself, her success in linking it to
her ongoing campaign on sample sharing has increased public
interest in NAMRU-2. In addition, Supari's poor handling of
Indonesia's broken health system and skyrocketing health care
costs are huge potential liabilities to her, making NAMRU-2 a
useful diversion, Khaidir told DepPol/C. Supari discovered
that issues related to divesting foreigners of Indonesian
assets are "very sexy," Khaidir said.


5. (C) Before her appointment as minister, Supari was a
cardiologist. According to another Muhammadiyah source, Raja
Juli Antoni, her strong nationalistic views were not known
until after she became minister in 2004, adding that because
she never lived abroad, Supari is very parochial. However,
Supari does have a strong mind of her own, Antoni told us. In
her recently released book, "It's Time for the World to
Change: Divine Hand Behind Avian Influenza," Supari describes
Indonesia's inability to acquire Tamiflu in 2005 as a "deep
wound in my heart" (ref C). She writes that rich countries
intend to profit from epidemics in poor countries like
Indonesia. Born in the traditional Central Java city of Solo
and schooled entirely in Indonesia, Supari writes fondly of
Sukarno as a leader "who made western countries afraid of
him," the same colonialists who "baby-fed" Indonesia through
charity. She also refers frequently to her Islamic faith and
her role as a champion of the poor.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES THRIVE


6. (C) The controversy over NAMRU-2 as a nationalist issue

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has simmered for a decade. One new element is that Supari
has been able to unite this traditional
nationalist/xenophobic sentiment here with part of the
Islamic community. A society which thrives on rumors and
takes conspiracy theories at face value, Indonesia has long
accepted western conspiracy theories as fact. The same type
of paranoid Indonesian civil servants and pundits who claim
that NAMRU-2 is carrying out top secret weapons research
(just as Supari claims Los Alamos is doing with Indonesian
a.i. samples) also believe the U.S. is plotting to divide and
conquer Indonesia by promoting separatism.
Ultra-nationalists have even linked NAMRU-2 with designs to
support Papuan independence, telling the media that NAMRU-2
is connected to tension in that province through its research
in Papua. (Note: In approximately 1995, a NAMRU request to
build a small airstrip in Papua--then Irian Jaya--to support
a malaria study there, was viewed by TNI as evidence of U.S.
meddling in Papua.).


7. (C) On April 23, two radical Muslim organizations, Mer-C
and An-Nashir Institute, jumped on the bandwagon with a press
conference, a gambit to bolster prospects for conservative
Muslim parties in the next elections. On April 25, Supari
appeared at another joint press conference with these same
organizations. Muhammadiyah sources told us that Supari's
joining forces with these extremist organizations has nothing
to do with Muhammadiyah or her own religious views. Rather,
both Supari and these organizations are appealing to the same
Islamic nationalist base which has a small but important
following in Indonesia.


8. (C) Supari's worldview has enough resonance in Indonesia
that mainstream politicians and pundits are publicly walking
gingerly around the issue. President Yudhoyono wrote an
introduction to Supari's book reportedly without knowing that
it contained farfetched theories about bio-weapons
production. (Note: Others say that Supari also is close to
the First Lady.) Yudhoyono's key foreign affairs adviser,
Dino Djalal, has been criticized by Yudhoyono's enemies for
supporting NAMRU-2. The defense minister has raised security
concerns and the foreign minister diplomatic immunity issues
about NAMRU-2, without taking a strong stand on NAMRU'S
future. Several members of Parliament have seized on the
issue for their own political purposes, calling for NAMRU-2
to be closed.

MEDIA COVERAGE CORRECTS THE STORY


9. (C) Given Supardi's passion for this issue and the
hesitation of policymakers to undercut her, it is unclear
when her diatribe will relent. However, the U.S. Mission
took the offensive against misinformation about NAMRU-2 with
a press conference held by the Ambassador and NAMRU Director
on April 24. This resulted in extensive media coverage
affirming that NAMRU-2 is conducting legitimate research on
naturally occurring tropical diseases in transparent,
collaborative and mutually beneficial fashion. Nearly 30
journalists toured NAMRU on April 25. During these tours and
others by Indonesian officials, visitors have been allowed to
open every door and talk to all Indonesian staff. During her
April 18 unannounced visit to NAMRU-2, Minister Supari was
pleasant and surprised that there were so many Indonesians
there, although she never acknowledged this fact in her
critical comments later to the media.



10. (C) The current media coverage has allowed the Mission
to begin to set the public record straight. Meanwhile,
Yudhoyono's office has been supportive of NAMRU despite
negative statements by Cabinet officials. While some
skeptics will never believe the true story, attention should
now turn from public diplomacy to efforts to educate
influential Indonesians individually, such as members of
Parliament, officials and civil society. The best hope to
keep NAMRU-2 in Indonesia is to convince key policymakers of
its continued usefulness to both countries. The critical
next step is the resumption of negotiations over NAMRU's MOU

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with the GOI, for which we urgently need instructions.
HUME