may cause war of civilizations

Jambi, NU Online
The visit of US President George W. Bush to Indonesia on Nov. 20, 2006 may cause new problems, especially a war of civilizations, culture and religions.

A professor of the Sultan Thaha Syaifuddin (STS) State Institute of Islamic Studies in Jambi, Prof Dr Muchtar Latied Mpd, said here on Wednesday that Bush’s visit to Indonesia will trigger a war of civilization, culture and religion, because Bush as a hardline orthodox Christian was always disliked by Moslems in Indonesia.

As a matter of fact, Bush is no longer strange to many  Indonesian Moslems, as some years ago the United States  pretended to provide an aid package to some Islamic boarding schools on the condition that their curricula must be changed.

"From this case, we can see that the US is trying to intervene and arrange the curricula of the Islamic boarding schools which applied religious and cultural values," Latief said as reported by the national news agency Antara. 

His visit to Indonesia is only a guarantee of protection for which he will be able to say that Indonesia is economically and politically secured.

Through his statement later, it may leave an impression that Indonesia has achieved  tremendous progress in development which will  automatically strengthen the value of the rupiah against the US dollar.

In fact, it is only a grand design of that country for the developing and poor countries.

"Such trick is often applied by Bush, because the US which has claimed itself as a world superpower often regards the developing and poor countries as powerless," he said.

Under the current circumstances, Bush’s visit to Indonesia is certainly favourable to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono known as an expert on strategy that may smoothen his bid for a second term.

It means that Bush’s visit is seen as having a higher political value than economic, political, cultural and religious values to  Indonesia. (dar)