JAKARTA, Indonesia — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today relentlessly hammered home the Obama administration’s message that America is under new management and ready to listen to and engage the world.
“When the United States is absent, people believe that we are not interested, and that can create a vacuum that destructive forces can fill,” she told a group of journalists after meeting with Indonesia’s leader on the second leg of a week-long Asia tour. “We don’t want to be absent. We want to be present.”
Earlier, she took to the airwaves, appearing on the most popular youth show in the world’s most populous Muslim nation to deliver her message and bring greetings from President Barack Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia.
Much of her appearance was lighthearted banter about her favorite music — the Beatles and Rolling Stones — but she also made it clear that Washington wants to address Muslim concerns about U.S. policy in the Middle East and elsewhere. She later met with Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but made no statement after the 45-minute talks.
Asked about past U.S. policies, which have deeply troubled Indonesians, Clinton took a shot at the Bush administration when explaining why she and Obama had appointed a special envoy to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict immediately after taking office.
“We felt like the United States had not been as active in trying to bring the parties together to resolve the conflict,” she said. “We’re going to work very hard to resolve what has been such a painful and difficult conflict for so many years.”
Clinton also said she would attend a donors’ pledging conference for rebuilding the Gaza Strip, to be held in Egypt on March 2.
Though most of Indonesia’s 190 million Muslims practice a moderate form of the faith, public anger ran high over U.S. policy in the Middle East and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush years, fueling a small but increasingly vocal fundamentalist fringe. The country has been hit by a string of suicide bombings targeting Western interests in recent years, but experts say an effective police crackdown has sharply reduced the terrorist threat.
Clinton also praised Indonesia for its efforts to fight terrorism while respecting human rights and for its hard-won multiethnic democracy.
Her message was received warmly, although small and scattered protests were held in several cities, with some Islamic hard-liners setting tires on fire and others throwing shoes at caricatures of Clinton.
Clinton, who heads later today to South Korea and China, announced plans to restart Peace Corps programs in Indonesia.
