20 Nov
Bush Whacked
As I start typing this George Bush II is just arriving at nearby Halim Airport. He’s going to have a chat with the USA Ambassador in an anteroom before boarding a helicopter and flying down to Bogor where, presumably, SBY is waiting and it’s raining.
That last point is important because it’s put off the waiting demonstrators.
“They are just making noises playing to the gallery,” Juwono Sudarsono, the Indonesian defense minister, said of the protesters. “Anti-Americanism is a high-tech industry.” (High-tech umbrellas? I want one!)
One of the things they’ve been protesting about, ignoring the American adventurism in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the building of two helipads, costing about $650,000 each according to the Jakarta Post, in historic Bogor Palace grounds. Helipads which they’ve just discovered won’t support the weight of the American chopper he’ll be in – codename: Chopper 1? – and the other one presumably carrying his security detail and chef.
GB has arrived from Vietnam where he didn’t do much except waffle at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
The primary focus of Bush’s trip to Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam is to increase American business and trade involvement in Asia, and to explore mutual efforts to pursue energy alternatives to fossil fuels and to combat disease.
He harped on about fighting terrorism without considering the socio-economic factors underpinning its causes. Which is just as well, because although the Indonesian armed forces, known as the TNI, have long been seen as the only institution capable of preventing the country of 7,000 disparate islands from fragmenting along geographical and ethnic lines, there will apparently be no discussions about increased military ties.
Nope, he’s going to be Mister Nice Guy. In a joint press conference with SBY, Bush is expected to stress a U.S. desire for stronger ties with Indonesia and promise that U.S. friendship goes beyond the help Americans gave the country after the killer tsunami of nearly two years ago.
As proof, he will cite $55 million in U.S. aid for anti-corruption and child immunisation programmes.
How generous. (I wonder how much of the anti-corruption aid has been siphoned off.)
It was originally said that he’d be in Indonesia for ten hours; now it’s said to be only six. The town of Bogor has stopped working for the day, with all schools and many businesses shut and a no cellphone zone around Bogor palace. Who knows what the cost to the economy will have been? “$55 million”?
Here in Jakarta, all police leave has been cancelled judging by the numbers I’ve seen today. I hope they get paid overtime. Extra special security is in force, including, as seen on live TV, snipers.
Once all the palaver is done, Bush and his entourage fly off to Hawaii making for one hell of a long day. This leaves the one obvious question: if nothing of substance is going to be achieved here, why wasn’t a meeting arranged in Hanoi on the sidelines of the APEC summit?
>why wasn’t a meeting arranged in Hanoi on the sidelines of the APEC summit?
cos the meeting in Bogor was instigated by SBY.
And $650,000 for a helipad? You’ve got to be kidding!!!
incidentally the chopper would be called AirForce One. Any plane carry the POTUS gets that title automatically. It’s not the physical plane but the callsign applied to it.
And I agree…$650K for a bloody Helipad!!
He did worse than do nothing in Vietnam..he made up stories to make himself look good at the expense of others, as evidenced here
Actually, I’ve subsequently discovered it was two helipads.
And thanks, Simon. I’ve slightly edited my post to include the Pat Lang link.
And this is a from a transcript of a broadcast on Oz TV:
TONY EASTLEY: George W. Bush has ended his Asian tour praising Indonesia, saying its democratic processes are offering peaceful alternatives to extremism.
The US President met his Indonesian counterpart at a tightly secured palace near Jakarta last night.
President Yudhoyono called for greater international cooperation towards ending the conflict in Iraq, but avoided discussing US troop withdrawal.
From Jakarta, Indonesia Correspondent Geoff Thompson reports.
PROTESTORS (chanting): America, America, terrorist, terrorist!
GEOFF THOMPSON: Protesters turned out in their thousands around locked-down Bogor yesterday, but in numbers nowhere near those predicted by organisers, like the Indonesian Islamic Movement’s Habib Abdurrahman Assegaf.
HABIB ABDURRAHMAN ASSEGAF: So, he is the big terrorist. He attack Iraq, how many people die? Bombing bodies is not jihad.
We are Muslim people, we don’t agree with that. But, we very not agree with George Bush, you know. In his regime, in his time, how many countries has he attacked? How many dollars to make people die in Iraq, in Afghanistan?
GEOFF THOMPSON: Aware of the anger in Indonesia at the US President’s foreign policy approach, local security forces took no chances, deploying in numbers easily overwhelming the protester count.
PROTESTORS (chanting): Terrorist, terrorist, George Bush, George Bush …
GEOFF THOMPSON: Safely meeting with Indonesia’s President kilometres away from the tumultuous crowd, behind the walls of Bogor Palace, George W. Bush welcomed all the noise, saying effective democracy gave the world’s largest Muslim nation an alternative to extremism.
GEORGE W. BUSH: Look, you know, I applaud a society where people are free to come and express their opinion, and it’s to Indonesia’s credit that it’s a society where people are able to protest and say what they think.
And it’s not the first time, by the way, where people have showed up and expressed their opinion about my policies. And it’s a … but that’s what happens when you make hard decisions.
My answer to people about whether or not, you know, how do you comfort people of the Muslim faith, that our policies are open is that I believe freedom is universal.
GEOFF THOMPSON: If anything the US President received tacit support for the continuing presence of American troops in Iraq.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono avoided stating when he thought US forces should withdraw, saying the question could not be answered before national reconciliation, effective security and reconstruction plans were established in Iraq.
SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO: So, I think we have to combine all those three solutions before actually the United States can determine what the possible policies to be developed in the future, related to the withdrawal of this and get the US forces from Iraq.
GEOFF THOMPSON: The two leaders also agreed to enhance cooperation in the areas of counter-terrorism, renewable bio-fuels and fighting bird flu.
Last week Washington approved a $72-million deal to enhance Indonesia’s education and child immunisation efforts.
In Jakarta, this is Geoff Thompson for AM.