Member comment - Reply to 'Joko Widodo's intense nationalism stalls regional leadership'

Doug Cole has a positive view of Indonesia's new president and sees much of Widodo's criticism as failing to view the whole picture. He says Indonesia is on the up and it's time to recognise the good Jokowi has done so far.

"As someone on the ground here for nearly 13 years I find it hard to comprehend how so many so-called expert commentators (academic and media) have failed to come to grips with what has been happening in Indonesia since 1999. One recent exception was a piece by a correspondent (I believe for Fairfax) who recently returned from an extended stay in Indonesia - it was accurate, thoughtful and empathetic.

Commnents from the Government (Bishop, Abbot et al) on the other hand, generally continue to be arrogant and ill-judged. These days, when it is actually noticed at all, Australia is really on the nose here. And that's a real tragedy.

The (continuing) performance over the drug executions by government spokespersons, the media and the the chattering classes of the wider community has been extraordinary. The performance by Abbot and Bishop was blatent political opportunism, particularly from an Abbot facing leadership issues.

Where were all these people who are so vehemently opposed to the death penalty when Indonesia shot the Bali bombers? I seem to remember a lot of Australians cheering for the same Indonesian authorities who carried out that retribution.

Can you imagine such a furore if the Bali traffickers were hung in Singapore? There was barely a ripple last time an execution happened there.

I think it is called hypocrisy - and that's certainly the way thinking Indonesians see it. To them it merely confirms their worst impressions of Australians and their leadership.

The analysis that suggests Jokowi is somehow emulating Soekarno because of ties of convenience to Megawati and influence she is exerting is far-fetched rubbish.

Megawati previously held office as president in her own right (and was pretty much a disaster, by the way). But the point is that she had the opportunity to revert to the Soekarno 'guided democracy' policy stance during her period in office and simply did not do so.

The Indonesia of 2015 is very different to that prior to 1965 and prior to 1999.

Indonesia is now entering the top 15 nations of the world in terms of GDP and probably will be in the top ten within a decade. It has come through a potentially tumultuous time over the past 20 years with very few scars, a developing confidence and great optimism. 

Jokowi is a very important break from the past as the first ever president drawn from outside the elites of the Jakarta establishment and the military. He is taking on an extraordinarily difficult challenge and from where I am sitting he is so far doing very well. 

He has taken on the the hugely politically fraught challenge of trying to clean up tax collections (or should we say the lack thereof). THAT takes massive courage in this society where the affluent take the same view of paying the Government as your average Greek, particularly the Indonesian born Chinese business sector. 

To suggest he is weak is again a total misreading through a failure to recognise the enormity of the disruptive nature of the process his election has triggered. Despite a largely unworkable parliament and forces opposed to his assumpion of power (as an upstart and an allegedly naive outsider), this is a man who had the ability and guts to sort out the chronic fuel subsidy issue, move to stop (or at least slow down) the illegal fishing boats exploiting Indonesian waters, and to tackle head-on the entrenched oil and gas mafia.

One of the silliest comments by Camroux and repeated by Callick relates to the Jokowi speech at the Bandung 60th anniversary conference. This was the the home and anniversary of the founding of the non-aligned group and such comments were entirely appropriate to the time and place. To the extent that they reflect the President and the Government's current position, they are a reflection of Indonesia's coinfidence and its increasing determination to establish its own place in the world.

The speech was very well received by the leaders of the Asian and African nations present. Hardly the stuff that 'will make it less likely that Indonesia will play a leadership role'. For those who haven't figured it out yet, the emerging nations of Asia (and Africa) in general have very much decided that they are no longer prepared to or need to kowtow to the Western developed nations that have controlled their destinies directly or indirectly for so long - think about the newly created Asian Development Bank.

As for the focus on Maritime matters - this was a key policy plank during Jokowi's election campaign and clearly stems from his business background. To anyone who has been here more than five minutes it is an obvious area requiring Government attention in a nation of 17,000 islands that has been consistently screwed by the commercial maritime powers of the world for several centuries - most recently by the Singaporeans.

Regarding ecomonic nationalism: Jokowi seems to be attempting to rein back some of the positions being adopted over the last couple of years of the Yudhoyono government, particularly by regulating  minerals, oil, gas and other commodities and their processing.

The suggestion that Jokowi wishes to 'revive the authority of the state'  and establish a 'strong state and the domestic politics of sovereignty'  - absolutely, and about time. Indonesia made an understandable but very unfortunate mistake in the way it decentralised power to the regions after the fall of Suharto and the introduction of democracy. The effect has been to create a new and recalcitrant cohort of snouts in the trough at provincial and regency level and even more difficulties in undertaking private and government infrastructure and development projects.

Perhaps more of the Australian commentators should actually spend time here looking and listening and analysing events on the ground rather than perpetuating myopic views based on reading each others papers and articles in their comfortable but isolated studies."

Doug Cole is a former journalist, member of the Indonesia Institute and now runs Smiling Hill Batam guest house and apartments.