Why can’t we have a president like this?
It’s all just words, of course, in a state where jihadists have committed numerous terrible acts of violence more or less with impunity. Even on the level of words alone, however, Yudhoyono has now surpassed virtually every Western leader. “President Hits Out at Terrorists, Says Indonesia Will Never Be Islamic State,” by Camelia Pasandaran in the Jakarta Globe, May 17:
In some of his strongest comments against terrorists yet, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday called on all Indonesians to join the government in combating terrorism and their plans to establish an Islamic state governed by Shariah law.
“I call for all Indonesian people to join together in saving the nation, saving our people, saving us all from the terrorism threat and from irresponsible parties that act beyond the limits of humanity,” Yudhoyono said at Halim Perdana Kusuma airport in East Jakarta before leaving for an informal visit to Singapore….
While Obama and European leaders have spoken about combating (a vaguely-defined) terrorism, none have ever spoken this strongly about “saving the nation, saving our people.” Maybe it is just hyperbole — or maybe Yudhoyono actually understands what is at stake in the resistance to Islamic supremacism and the advancement of Sharia. Certainly Obama does not.
The National Police have recently arrested and murdered several terrorist suspects in Aceh, Central and West Java, and Jakarta. The police have revealed that the terrorists were planning to assassinate the president and high-ranking officials in a bid to create an Islamic state….
Yudhoyono, speaking to journalists in offices adjoining the runway, said that several important terrorists had been arrested in the past but when they were released from jail fell back into their terrorist ways….
How refreshing it would have been if Obama had ever admitted as much regarding Guantanamo.
“What we’re actually facing now is those who have been controlling [the terror movement in Indonesia] for the last ten years … with some more new members,” he said.
“What is interesting is the target of the terror,” he said. “In the past, they targeted foreigners, but now they are targeting our nation, our country, our government as the main target. They want to build an Islamic state, something that has been finished with in our history.”
Yudhoyono said that though Indonesia was not an Islamic state, Indonesia respected Islam and had adopted its values and aspects of its laws in building the nation.
“But if this group wants to push its intention to change the nation’s ideology, change the Constitution and the nation’s foundation, it is unacceptable for the Indonesian people. They’re against democracy while democracy is the result of reformation.”
Such an effort is going on in the U.S., as I documented in Stealth Jihad, but it has never been officially acknowledged.