Clinton strikes right note with Indonesians

Clinton strikes right note with Indonesians | theage.com.au

* Tom Allard, Jakarta
* February 20, 2009

HILLARY Clinton is barely halfway through her first overseas trip as US Secretary of State, but her megawatt celebrity and finely honed political skills already suggest she will be a most unusual, and formidable, diplomat.

Indonesia has been entranced by the former US first lady, who has struck a tone befitting the predicament of a chastened superpower battling a financial crisis of its own making and a tarnished international reputation.

"We know we don't have all the answers," she said. "We are here to listen as well as talk."

And, like the consummate politician she is, Mrs Clinton used her personal story to press home the message of humility and the possibility of US renewal.

At once self-effacing and providing advice to Indonesia as it grapples with its new democracy, Mrs Clinton received hearty applause and sympathetic laughter when she spoke of her defeat to Barack Obama in the hard-fought Democratic Party presidential primary.

"When you have an election, some people win and some people lose," she said. "I've had that experience … and I know how important it is in a democratic system that you accept the results. After an election, you have to find common ground."

Her emergence as Secretary of State in the Obama Administration showed, she said, how rivals could come together.

Mrs Clinton has relished the opportunity to use her celebrity in ways uncommon in the often staid world of diplomacy.

A visit to a poor Jakarta neighbourhood yesterday saw her mobbed by locals, and dozens of junior officials at the Association of South-East Asian Nations secretariat screamed "Hillary, Hillary" as she walked into the building.

She also appeared on a youth variety show called Dahsyat. The title of the show roughly translates as "awesome", and Mrs Clinton's appearance was sandwiched in between performances by pop singers.

Perhaps inevitably in Indonesia, she was asked to sing.

"Here is the problem. If I sing, they will leave," she replied, pointing at the audience of teeny-boppers.

Still, after eight years of "with us or against us" unilateralism from the Bush administration that frequently grated with, and even enraged, the wider world, she is singing an altogether different tune. And Indonesia, at least, is listening.

■ Mrs Clinton also confirmed she would attend an international conference in Egypt on March 2 to help rebuild the Gaza Strip after Israel's offensive there. She said Mr Obama wanted to re-engage in the Middle East after the Bush administration had "not been as active in trying to bring the parties together".