FAR away from his home country, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono played a new role. "Allow me now to speak as a salesman for Indonesia," he said at the Fairmont Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in mid-March this year. He was speaking to some of the foremost businesspeople in the Arabian Peninsula, including the Chairman of the Bin Laden Group.

Yudhoyono then promoted several attractive items, including investment in a tourism resort in Lombok,