KEY POINTS:
Western countries such as New Zealand should stop putting pressure on Indonesia over anti-terrorism, a visiting Indonesian politician says.
Mahfudz Siddiq also suggested such an approach was counter-productive.
He was one of 17 Indonesian MPs to visit this country last week and appeared before the foreign affairs and
defence committee to answer questions about democracy, natural disasters and terrorism.
Later he told the Herald that Indonesia was well aware that terrorism was a problem.
But because of the "high pressure" other countries, especially from the West, put on Indonesia, it changed the perception within Indonesia about how to solve the problem.
"It's dangerous," he said. "So I suggest that other countries, especially Western ones, minimise the political pressure to combat terrorism because we are already aware it is our problem.
"As a Muslim country we have to solve this problem by ourselves."
The perception inside Indonesia was that combating terrorism was "more a Western agenda than ours", he said.
Mr Siddiq is also chairman of the Fraction of Justice and Prosperity Party in the Indonesian House of Representatives.
However, another delegation member, Dr Sutradara Gintings, praised New Zealand's attitude to Indonesia saying it did not lecture it the way countries such as Australia did.
He said Indonesians fought terrorism because it was the enemy of democracy and peace, not because of Western pressure. But it was a transnational crime and international co-operation was important.
Ordinary Indonesians had a deep and uneasy feeling about Australia, but they had a different perception of New Zealand, formed mainly over East Timor.
He believed Australia had blamed Indonesia for all of East Timor's ills, but that "New Zealand never accused us".
"Our relationship with New Zealand is quite different to that of other Western countries," Dr Gintings said. "It is important because many Westerners dictate to us about what we have to do."
New Zealand was not like that. It did not dictate what the country should do but showed Indonesians "best practice" and had offered to help train the public service. Indonesia could then pick it up or not, depending on its need.
"With New Zealand we can make equal and fair interaction," Dr Gintings said.
Indonesia had many problems as it established democracy but it was on the right track. "You have to be patient. You set up the political institution within one year, but you cannot develop the democratic culture, the democratic values, human rights values overnight," he said.
"And the Government of New Zealand understands it precisely."
Dr Gintings is a senior member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle of former President Megawati Sukarnoputri and on the committees for defence, foreign affairs and communication.
