HILLARY'S HUMANE APPROACH CREATES NEW ATMOSPHERE

Jakarta, Feb 20 (ANTARA) - The presidium chairman of the Association of Alumni of the Indonesian Nationalist Students Movement, Palar Batubara, said here on Thursday that Hillary Clinton had created a new atmosphere in the relations between the two countries.

"While actually the US knew exactly what was going on here the spirit that she brought here and her warmth must be given a good welcome," he said to ANTARA.
On her view on democracy, Batubara said that it was also a valuable lesson for Indonesia which she considered the world's third biggest democracy.
"She was able to produce fresh, peaceful and interesting diplomatic statements regarding particularly democracy at a time when we are just preparing for legislative and presidential elections," he said.
He said Hillary Clinton with her friendly style had also explained about her competition with Barack Obama in the US presidential election. He said it was what she said that to lose or to win in an election was common and could help develop good relationship for building the nation that was important. "This is a plus value for us," he said.
Batubara further said the ethical democratic style that Hillary had explained was indeed found not only in a political speech but also in the reality.
"The winner and the loser as shown by the US could in fact complete each other and jointly build their nation and were not dragged into creating further hostility," he said.
He said he considered a number of points Hillary Clinton had often raised such as about the environment, health and cleanliness very important and significantly correlated with Barack Obama's past stay in Indonesia and therefore had invited their attention.
"The role of women and civil society are also things that draw US attention because in other Muslim countries the situation is concerning while in Indonesia the women are given an opportunity to progress and develop," he said.
In view of that he shared Hillary Clinton's statement that Indonesia could possibly become the world's biggest and modern Muslim country.