From My Point of View

By Eric Ellis (South-East Asia correspondent for Fortune magazine) Resentment and envy still appear to underpin a testy relationship, writes Eric Ellis. *** ASIDE from Bali and the brothels and business parks bordering Singapore, the city-state's investors, like Australians, have never felt particularly comfortable in Indonesia. While its bankers shelter billions in Indonesian loot from prying Jakarta investigators, it is generally regarded as a country best avoided, a corrupt swamp of intrigues on Singapore's pristine doorstep. And Indonesians return the suspicion with scorn. Former president B.J.Habibie once described Singapore as a Chinese "red dot" in an Islamic archipelago, a toy-town so insignificant that were it to suddenly vanish, Jakarta would not notice it missing. That was 1998, and Indonesia was in no state to be patronising. The rupiah had lost 80% of its value, collapsing the economy. The post-Soeharto political vacuum was being exploited by religious ex

In his job as an Israeli pediatrician, Yuval saves the lives of Palestinian children. But the father of three also takes Palestinian lives as an attack helicopter pilot patrolling Gaza. By Laura Blumenfeld Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, November 25, 2007; Page A01 HOLON, Israel -- The 2-year-old's flawed heart beat backward, pumping blue blood to his lips and inking rings around his eyes. Ahmad edged across his hospital bed, toward his mother, Nasima Abu Hamed. Nasima, a Palestinian from Gaza had brought Ahmad to Israel for an operation. She moved uneasily through hospital halls decked with Israeli flags -- but the Jewish doctors could save her son. A pediatrician named Yuval walked in wearing a white coat. Nasima smiled. Yuval high-fived Ahmad, who was wearing toddler-size army fatigues. Yuval said in Arabic, "How's he doing?" Nasima shrugged and asked, "When is the surgery?" Nasima was eager to return to Gaza. There was trouble at home, clashes wi

By Seth Mydans Published: October 31, 2007 Nearly 10 years after the tumult of his ouster, the old dictator spends his days alone in his sitting room, one friend says, inviting few visitors, making no public statements, eating carefully to avoid hurting his stomach. As he did during his 32 years as Indonesia's president, Suharto, 86, often offers an enigmatic smile when asked a pointed question, the friend says, but now it is sometimes a smile of bafflement as his mind slips away. These are the impressions of Retnowati Abdulgani-Knapp, the author of a recent sympathetic biography who continues to visit Suharto in the modest home to which he retreated in May 1998 and has rarely left since. The crowds chanting, "Hang Suharto!" have long since disappeared, the nation has hurried ahead without him, and fewer people really care what happens to the man who once towered over them. It is a strange, muted fate for a deposed strongman, neither fleeing nor being vigorously pursued,

'We have to be brave enough to ask: What would the world do without Indonesia?" When she recently posed this question to her compatriots, Indonesia's trade minister, Mari Pangestu, had in mind the country's role as premier global supplier of various important commodities. But the question could as well have been asked about Indonesia's wider relevance to the world. Boastful it might sound, but the remark offered a counterpoint to the nation's extremely low international visibility, a result of the mix of deference, inward looking politics and persistent lack of leaders willing to make an articulate stand on the world stage. Indonesia is about to become the president of the UN Security Council. That is unlikely to alter its international profile, but it does provide occasion to look at why Indonesia is rather more important than it usually appears, and at why it fails to leave much of a mark. Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous nation, the largest