Houston's International Scene
April 13, 2003, 7:33PM By MAE GHALWASH Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
Indonesian group woos Americans
It was a tourism road show, complete with tourism officials and videos of sites in Indonesia. To this 12-man Indonesian delegation, however, it was much more: It was an opportunity to improve relations between the American and the Indonesian people.
"We want to maintain a relationship with the American people even though our governments have an up-and-down relationship," Faisal Saleh, head of the Alumni of Permias, an organization for Indonesians who graduated from U.S. universities, said Friday.
U.S.-Indonesian relations have been strained since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against America. Washington has in the past criticized Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, as having taken limited actions against terrorists. Indonesia was disappointed when Washington included its citizens in the groups of foreigners who must register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service as part of a national security operation.
The Alumni members organized this tourism road show to four U.S. cities -- Houston is their third stop -- because of what they saw as a growing gap between the two sides, said Saleh, a 1988 political science graduate from the University of California.
They were concerned that Americans had lumped Indonesians together with the Sept. 11 terrorists, especially after the October bombing by suspected Muslim militants in Bali that killed some 200 people, mainly Western tourists, Saleh said. The group was also concerned that Indonesians in turn viewed Americans as being tough on Muslims, he added.
On Friday, the delegation met with more than 90 Houstonians who had either been schooled or worked in Indonesia and members of the trade industry to tell them that Indonesia has not changed, Saleh said, calling the social, ethnic and religious strife in his homeland all part of his country's transition to democracy.
In turn, Saleh said the delegation was reassured that Americans still respect and like Indonesians, a thought he said he will relay to his countrymen.
The Friday meeting secured some trips to Indonesia, although Saleh would not say how many. Indonesia's tourism industry has been hurting since the Bali bomb attack. Indonesia has since passed emergency anti-terrorist laws and beefed up security around its tourist sites and hotels.
The outbreak in Asia of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, has also slowed the tourist flows.
International calendar
· Latin America: Ambassador Diego Arria of Venezuela, who is special adviser to the U.N. secretary general, will discuss Latin America's struggle toward democracy while facing economic crises and a U.S. administration preoccupied with the Middle East. He will be speaking in his capacity as director of the Columbus Group, which promotes Latin American interests. The event is at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Westin Galleria Hotel, 5060 W. Alabama. Reservations are required. Call the Houston World Affairs Council at 713-522-7811.
· Iraq: Shaden Yousef from the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee and Lt. Col. Gordon Fowkes, a Vietnam veteran, will join professors from the University of Houston in a round-table discussion with audience participation on the meaning and consequences of the attack on Iraq. The event is at 7 p.m. today in Room 101 of the Social Work Building, University of Houston, (Behind Agnes Arnold building. Use Entrance 14, off Cullen Boulevard). For information, contact buzz@uh.edu, or call 713-376-2328.
· Muslim women: Azizah Al-Hibri, a professor of law at the University of Richmond's T.C. Williams School of Law, will lecture on "The Qur'anic Worldview: A Woman's Perspective." The lecture, the last part of the "Women and Gender in Islamic Societies" lecture series, starts at 7 p.m. April 21 at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, University Boulevard, Entrance 8. Reservations are required. Call 713-348-5794 by noon Friday.