"Do not be trapped by his arrival but Indonesia must show that it is the real leader in the region," said Bima Arya Sugiarto at a discussion held by the Indonesian Young Caucus (KMI) here on Wednesday.
The associate chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN) said Indonesia should not expect much from the impact of the presence of the US President who spent part of his childhood in Jakarta at the meeting as it would only be a protocol in nature.
"We may say we are too self-confident when we are considered important by the US. Obama indeed has sentiment over Indonesia because of his childhood. But that is all. We are only used as an example of how Islam and liberal democracy can go along well," he said.
He said the ASEAN spirit is still limited to the elites and has not yet touched the common people.
"The ASEAN spirit has not yet been at people-to-people levels. It has indeed been solid at the elite level but it is still weak among the people," he said.
In view of that he said Indonesia as current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations could play an important role to make the organization a strong and successful community. On the other hand he said Indonesia must reform its democracy so that the trust will not drop.
"How can we be united as an ASEAN community if democracy in Indonesia is still problematic. What kind of democracy we wish to spread to ASEAN," he said.
A senior researcher of the Political Research Center of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Dr Siti Zuhro, said the arrival of Obama would not affect much if domestic conditions in Indonesia remain problematic.
"Whoever he is to visit be it Obama or others will not affect positively on Indonesia unless we do not encourage the state to progress. Therefore we must not be lagged behind. At the ASEAN region we must be the leader," she said.
She said Indonesia would be left behind other ASEAN countries because bureaucratically it has not yet been successful in terms of democracy while in terms of infrastructure it remains poor while its natural resources have not yet been promising.
"The implementation of regional autonomy must be successful. Indonesia must rise and develop the regions because the success of developemnt in the regions would boost Indonesia," she said.
Apart from that Siti said Indonesia also has to have a strong leader. "It is that kind of leader that will become the actor who is capable of moving the system. System meanwhile must also be improved through reform in our democracy," she said.
US President Barack Obama is scheduled to arrive in Bali on November 16 but all the logistics to be needed for his visit have already arrived on Monday (Nov 7).
Besides President Obama the ASEAN Summit is also scheduled to be attended by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Other summits to be held in concurrence with the ASEAN summit are the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN-India Summit and the ASEAN-UN Summit that will be attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
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Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
