President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s effort to resolve disputes among
Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states appears to have
strengthened Indonesia’s leading role in the regional grouping.
The most recent example of
Indonesia’s leadership in the region took place when Foreign Minister Marty
Natalegawa visited several Asean capitals and wrote to their heads of
government on the need for the grouping to unite in addressing conflict in the
South China Sea.
Marty embarked on a 36-hour
diplomacy tour to the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore
that resulted in Asean member states agreeing on a joint statement on the
ongoing disputes in the South China Sea.
The effort was seen as necessary
after the Asean foreign ministers, for the first time in the group’s 45-year
history, failed to produce a joint communique from the Asean Ministerial
Meeting in Phonm Penh last month because they couldn’t agree on the paragraph
about the territorial disputes.
Critics quickly declared that
Asean’s failure to reach common ground marked the end of Asean unity and
centrality in tackling problems, especially if it related to the interests of
China or the United States. The two countries have been seen as trying to expand
influence among Asean countries.
But Marty rejected claims Asean
was not united. “Following the AMM and shuttle diplomacy, what we are focusing
on now is how to keep the momentum alive in drafting the Code of Conduct in the
South China Sea,” he said.
“We have agreed on the main
elements and what we have to do now is to put them into details and ensure that
the process is rolling along.”
Despite the absence of a joint
communique, Marty said that Asean is still on track to finalize the items they
agreed on during the meeting, such as completing the draft for an Asean Human
Rights Declaration and the establishment of the Asean Institute for Peace and
Reconciliation before the next regional summit of leaders in November.
Leading role
Repairing the rift among member
states, reinforced by the hard-line stances taken by Vietnam and the
Philippines toward China’s claims of sovereignty in the area, will not be easy
and will continue to haunt Asean in the future.
“Asean member states have to
thank Indonesia for the shuttle diplomacy effort. It shows Indonesia has a
leading role in the region even though its chairmanship of Asean has passed,”
Ratna Shofi Inayati, an Asean studies expert from the Indonesian Institutes of
Sciences (LIPI), said on Tuesday. “Indonesia has to maintain its role in waging
peace in the region.”
Martin Loeffelholz, rector of the
Swiss German University in Serpong, Tangerang, and also an expert on
international relations, said that Yudhoyono’s prompt action in sending his
foreign minister on a shuttle-diplomacy trip following the AMM deadlock is an
example of how Indonesia is taking a stronger political leadership role in
Asean.
“Normally that would be the role
of the Asean chairmanship but in this case, Cambodia was part of the problem
instead of the solution,” Loeffelholz said.
He added that such action should
not be seen as Indonesia trying to dominate Asean politically.
“I think Indonesia doesn’t have
an interest in dominating Asean but it has an interest in making Asean a
stronger political voice on the global stage,” he said.
Ratna said that Indonesia’s
leading role in the region was entrenched given it pioneered Asean’s
establishment in 1967 under the administration of President Suharto.
“However, Indonesia had a
relatively low-key presence in Asean during the next presidents’
administrations, though it was so-so under President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
What SBY is doing now is a continuation of Suharto’s legacy,” she said.
“Whoever the next president will be, Asean should continue to be the main focus
in Indonesia’s foreign policy.”
Last year, Indonesia took a
leading role in restoring order in the region when it was mandated by the
United Nations to act as a mediator for a border dispute between Thailand and
Cambodia.
The move coincided with
Indonesia’s turn to take the regional bloc’s rotating chairmanship.
Asean centrality
Indonesia has also been quietly
promoting political reform in Myanmar, hosting visits by the country’s
presidential advisory team and sending military reformers, such as Agus Wijoyo,
to pass on Indonesia’s experience of democratic transition.
While other Asean members have
argued in favor of cutting Myanmar from the group, Yudhoyono stood firm,
insisting that casting the reclusive country out of the organization would only
push it toward China, endangering the balance of power in the region.
More recently Yudhoyono called on
Myanmar President Thein Sein to solve the deadly communal conflicts between the
Rakhine and Rohingya ethnic groups that has led to asylum-seekers flowing into
neighboring Asean countries for years.
LIPI’s Ratna said that it was
understandable that Indonesia made the call to Myanmar, considering that
Indonesia is receiving its share of fleeing Rohingya people.
“Indonesia should urge Myanmar to
resolve the problem accordingly because it has been going on for a long time
and it is only getting worse, considering that Myanmar itself is poised to
chair Asean in 2014,” Ratna said.
She added that Indonesia could
boost Asean’s prominence on the world stage when the country holds the
chairmanship of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation next year.
“Through the APEC forum, Indonesia
could push Asean centrality in the wider Asia-Pacific region, especially
considering the Asean is the most solid regional bloc in the world,” she said.
Indonesia’s good intentions and
largely selfless diplomatic efforts can be held up as a rare example of a
powerful nation putting the interests of others before its own, Michael
Vatikiotis, Asia regional director of the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue based
in Singapore, wrote in the Straits Times newspaper on Monday.
Ismira Lutfia
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