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Japan-China relations and Indonesia’s Foreign Policy

Posted on April 24, 2015

When Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meet in Jakarta and Bandung this week, the shadow of the China-Japan rivalry will be marked by historical as well as contemporary issues. These define the changing circumstances that will influence Indonesia’s current priorities in its foreign policy initiatives toward Asia’s two giants.

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Xi carries the mantle of Zhou Enlai, China’s charismatic premier who wowed the Bandung and Jakarta crowds back in 1955 by solidly backing Indonesian president Sukarno in supporting Indonesia’s nascent anti-colonial stance, whilst at the same time seeking to maintain Sukarno’s attempts to accommodate Japan’s rise to recovery and its future role in an increasingly post-colonial Southeast Asia.

At the same time, Xi carries the burden of managing China’s increasingly complicated internal situation, most importantly curbing corruption within its rampantly uncontrollable bureaucracies in China’s diverse provinces.

Abe seeks to maintain Japan’s reliance on the protection of the U.S. Pacific Command while at the same time pursuing a more Asia-centric foreign policy to accommodate Japanese public opinion, which seeks a more independent role to play in East Asia and the Pacific.

Both leaders implicitly accept the fact that in the foreseeable future there is no real alternative to the future of China’s and Japan’s economic and exports future other than to rely on the American naval dominance over the sea lines of communication that link the export and import hubs of China and Japan’s vital communications straddling East Asia, the Indian and Pacific oceans and points beyond.

Indonesian foreign policy will have to deftly navigate and at the same time accommodate Xi’s desire to harmonize internal political and economic priorities at home with its assertive role in the East Asia region without threatening the current balance of forces in the Western Pacific.

Abe’s role is no less difficult. He must assure the Chinese government that Japan’s own version of a “peaceful rise” will not bring fears of a Japanese revival of the East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere of the early 1940s, which led to the Pacific War with the United States and its allies.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s role as an honest broker will be tested in the immediate aftermath of this week’s meeting to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Asian-African Conference in Bandung. His promise is to exercise foreign policy that is firm, focused and down to earth. Like Xi and Abe, Jokowi will ultimately be defined by his domestic performance at home.

While Xi is under pressure at home to be more assertive against Japanese revanchism and Abe is under pressure from Japanese nationalists who want their country to curb perceived unilateralism, Jokowi is under pressure from the ultras within his Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) who want him to be more assertive, injecting Sukarno-style populism into Indonesian economic and financial policy making.

For Jokowi the AAC commemorative summit comes on the heels of his trip to Tokyo and Beijing to forge Jakarta’s ties with its long-time Asian trading partners.

The time is opportune for Jokowi to raise questions about the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, which China has initiated and which has won global support. Jokowi can ask his Chinese counterpart, among others, whether the AIIB is feasible in terms of implementing a “clean, green and transparent” organization to include founding member status.

While major economies like the U.K., Germany and France have agreed to join the AIIB, Japan, which dominates the Asian Development Bank (as well as the U.S., which controls the World Bank) has expressed its wariness toward the AIIB.

Jokowi may also ask Abe to follow up on Japan’s commitment to assisting non-Java provinces to rebalance the Indonesian economy in favor of eastern Indonesia and rescue Indonesia from inequality and disintegration.

As for domestic pressures, they have much in common; Jokowi can persuade Xi and Abe that their performances at home need patience to adjust to current and immediate needs and expediencies.

Jokowi can remind Xi and Abe of the Asian adage on which all great Asian civilizations can rely; time will be on their side.

Those who try to hurry up history may find themselves trapped in the ancient tale of the hare who tried to outrun the turtle.

Categories: International

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Makna Bela Negara

Posted on December 23, 2014

Menjelang pertengahan 1946 setahun setelah 17 Agustus 1945, pemerintah RI pimpinan Sukarno Hatta terpaksa hijrah ke Yogyakarta akibat situasi keamanan yang tak menentu. Jakarta dan sekitarnya dikuasai tentara sekutu yg dipimpin Inggris, serta sebagian tentara Belanda dan Australia yg dipimpin komando Asia Tenggara pimpinan Lord Mountbatten. Sebagian pulau Jawa mulai diduduki tentaraSekutu (InggrisAmerika Australia) setelah balatentara Jepang berangsur ditarik mundur selepas Jepang menyerah kepada Amerika pimpinan Jend Macarthur tgl 15 Agustus di Teluk Tokyo.

Bekitar 3 tahun setelah 17 Agustus 1945, pemerintah Sukarno-Hatta menghadapi tantangan a.l. Perundingan RI-Belanda diatas kapal perang AS “US Renville” 1947-48, pemberontakan Partai Komunis Indonesia 18 September. Pemerintah Belanda bersiap-siap merebut RI yg berkedudukan di Yogyakarta.
Melihat gelagat Belanda itu, Sukarno Hatta menyiapkan sebuah pemerintah darurat RI apabila ibukota di Yogyakarta jatuh ke tangan Belanda

Tanggal 19 Desember 1948 atas mandat Presiden Sukarno dan Wakil Presiden Mohamad Hatta kepada Menteri Kemakmuran Sjafrudin Prawiranegara yang tengah bertugas di Sumatra Barat telah terjadi pemberian wewenang politik untuk mendirikan Pemerintah Darurat Republik Indonesia (PDRI ) .
Mandat Sukarno-Hatta dikirim radiogram/kawat pada tgl 18 Desember 1948 petang, beberapa jam sebelum pasukan payung Belanda menduduki lapangan terbang Maguwo dan menguasai kota Yogyakarta pagi hari 19 Desember.

pahlawan

Karena kawat dari Yogyakarta terhambat faktor teknis, mandat Sukarno-Hatta baru diterima da dibahas dalam oleh persidangan awal PDRI di Bukittinggi tgl 23 Desember 1948 pimpinan Sjafruddin Prawiranegara dan Sutan Moh Rasjid. Presiden Sukarno, Wakil Presiden Mohammad dan sejumlah tokoh sipil ditawan militer Belanda untuk diasingkan ke pulau Bangka. Di pulau Jawa, Pemerintah Darurat Republik Indonesia mendapat dukungan Panglima Besar Letnan Jendral Sudirman, kepala tentara territorium Jawa kolonel Abdul Harris Nasution dan kepala tentara territorium Sumatra kol Hidayat Martaatmadja.

Beberapa anggota masyarakat di sekitar Bukittinggi,Yogya dan Jawa Timur ikut berunjuk rasa mendukung PDRI. Perwakilan RI di New Delhi, Kairo dan Markas PBB di Lake Success, New York, giat menyebarkan berita dan bahwa fakta bahwa Republik Indonesia masih hidup secara defacto. Diplomasi dan perlawanan bersenjata dilaksanakan seperti segera setelah Proklamaisi 17 Aguustus 1945. Geriya revolusi memompa semangat juang pemuda pelajar, mahasiswa, pegawai negeri di Yogya, Jawa Timur dan siswa/mahasiswa di Malang, Surabaya dan Jawa Tengah.

Mereka semua, pemimpin politik dan militer,adalah perintis gagasan Bela Negara sesuai dengan paham “pertahanan rakyat semesta ” yang dianut oleh seluruh bangsa sejak Proklamari. Paham kejuangan ini berlanjut yang pada tahun 1948-1950 dikalangan pemuda, pelajar, mahasiswa, pemuka agama/ tokoh adat. Tentara Pelajar di Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bandung dan Surabaya mengangkat senjata sambil menuntut ilmu.

Gerilya revolusi menjadi semangat juang dikalangan pemuda. Adnan Kapau Gani, Ferdinand Lumbang Tobing, letkol Askari letkol Kawilarang, I. J. Kasimo, K H Masjkur, Teuku Muh Hassan ádalah sebagian tokoh didalam negeri. Diluar negeri dr Sudarsono di New Delhi, H.M Rasjidi di Kairo dan di L.N. Palar di New York melaksanakan diplomasi perjuangan sebagai bagian dari membela Republik Indonesia. PDRI adalah lambang semangat juangn dalam keadaan darurat. PDRI tidak bertahan lama, hanya 207 hari sampai Juli 1949, saat mandat PDRI diserahkan kembali ke Republik Indonesia pimpinan Mon Hatta yg ketika itu memimpin sebagai perdana menteri merangkap Wakil Presiden.

Bela Negara dalam era globalisasi ini sekarang ini ditentukan oleh generasi kelahiran 1978 keatas yang bekiprah di segala bidang pertarungan global pada kurun waktu 2015-2045, menjelang 100 tahun Repubik Indonesia. Dalam sarasehan tentang ” Peran PDRI dalam perjuangan Republik Indonesia” di Bukittinggi tahun 2007 Menko Polhukam Widodo AS menegaskan “Semua pelaku sejarah PDRI di dalam dan luar negeri , sipil dan militer, telah melaksanakan tugas dengan berani, baik dan benar.” Pada tahun 2008 Dewan Tanda Gelar dan Tanda Jasa megangkat Sjafruddin Prawiranegara dan Mohmad Natsir, tokoh PDRI sebagai Pahlawan Nasional.

Bela Negara kini di disebarluaskan oleh Kementerian Pertahanan dengan dukungan Kementerian Luar Negeri, Kementerian Pendidikan Dasar Menengah, Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi dan Riset, Kementerian Pemuda Olahraga dan Kementerian Pemberdayaan Apparatur Negara dan Refomasi Birokrasi.
Mereka bertekad bertekad untuk:Bela Tanah Air, bela Budaya dan Adat, bela Sains dan Teknologi, bela Lingkungan Hidup dan Kekayaan Hayati, bela kemahiran Indonesia dalam Finansial Global, bela dalam menjalankan Perang Otak dan Perang Maya. Dan yang paling penting untuk kelangsungan bangsa da negara: seluruh pemuda Angkatan 1998, Angkatan 2008, bertekad untuk membela Sila Keadilan Sosial bagi seluruh Rakyat Indonesia.

Categories: Nation

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Living in a VUCA world

Posted on July 29, 2014

True to form, the US military has come up with yet another set of buzzwords to define the current policy confusion that confronts the situation facing American forces assigned to trouble spots around the world.

In the 1950s, it was SNAFU (Situation Normal: All F—-d Up). Now, in the wake of the political, economic and cultural crises in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East, East Asia and a host of flare-ups in other regions of the world, US forces — the army, navy, air force and marines — face the thankless task of operating in some of the world’s most intractable trouble spots comprising wars, insurgencies and tribal conflicts, many of which were born out of local
rivalries but are often blamed (fairly or unfairly) on American involvement, or on American fears that such tribal or local wars may end up challenging America’s national security interests.

One of the outcomes of the investigation into the personal backgrounds of the 9/11 hijackers led to a broader question among Americans: “Why do they hate us?” This was a variation on the Cold War question of why were the Soviets so anti-American at the height of US-Soviet rivalry throughout the world.

American diplomats, aid agencies and military attachés who work in embassies continue to carry the burden of this cultural overhang. Those who specifically engage in “stability operations” in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq following the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 find themselves trying to figure out ways to confront today’s world of Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) at every level — in staff, field and theater operations.

How does one define a reliable war lord; an exile who commands sufficient leadership authority to follow through on an election cycle that guarantees a modicum of longevity to satisfy the desk jockey in charge of funding America’s programs, subject to periodic Congressional approval? Who guarantees the guarantor?

What level of support is given to covert operations that effectively make renditions in Asia or Latin America serve the US’ immediate policy goals across state, Pentagon and National Security Agency (NSA) levels?

How effective are experts in Islamic studies in gauging the proper pitch to ascertain American success? In the mid-1990s, the renowned scholar, Bernard Lewis, was invited by then US ambassador to Indonesia, Paul Wolfowitz, to dinner to meet Nurcholish Madjid. The consensus reached at the time was that Indonesia was a modern society destined to be a role model for other Muslim-majority countries, including in the Middle East.

Such was the belief in Pentagon circles that in March 2003, Wolfowitz was convinced, based on his experience as the ambassador in Indonesia, that the US invasion in Iraq would be welcomed by Iraqis who would be only too glad to oust Saddam Hussein.

No one in the Pentagon or in Jakarta, least of all in Iraq, realized that the VUCA world had arrived. In Iraq, stability operations fell apart, as political, cultural and especially sectarian differences rose their ugly heads and upended all notions of policy effectiveness.

The world has changed greatly from the Jack Ryan dramas depicted in Tom Clancy’s novels and the movies based on them.

Jack_Ryan_Shadow_Recruit_review

Even the world post Osama bin Laden’s death in May 2011 (Zero Dark 30) is having to be constantly revised and updated.

Categories: International

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