Viewed from the outside, Indonesia is a big country. It is one of the most populous countries in the world, covering a vast space of islands and waters in Southeast Asia. This is a cliché because it is true — Indonesia is the largest Muslim populous nation in the world. Legally it is run by secular laws, but the fact remains that about 90 percent of Indonesians identify themselves as Muslims, and Islamic culture and its world view dominate society. This point alone is enough to put Indonesia into the memberships of G20 and APEC, and to become a destination for Obama’s Asia tour, regardless of his childhood history here.

Indonesia has never been the most famous country in Southeast Asia. For Americans it is the Philippines and Vietnam. For the British and Australians it is Malaysia and Singapore, the bridge between India and China.

But ASEAN could only be born after Indonesia ceased hostility with its neighbors and had a pro-West government. Even as it was staunchly anti-communist, Indonesia under Soeharto was crafty enough to avoid alliance with the West and to maintain good relations with communist states, excluding China.

That is the image of Indonesia that Yudhoyono’s foreign policy wants to achieve. In the age of surging nationalism and multipolarity, Indonesia wants to befriend rivals such as China and the US, Iran and Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia, and Turkey and the EU. His critics, of course, accuse him of selling out this country to foreigners (i.e. Obama’s America), and ask him to emulate isolationists and anti-West strongmen such as Soekarno, Hugo Chavez, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which is unlikely to happen.

The main reason why Indonesia is not very famous overseas is because there is no sizable Indonesian community overseas. The number of Dutch-Indonesians is not sustained by fresh migrants from Indonesia, and Indonesian migration to countries such as the US, Canada and Singapore is small compared to migration from India, Malaysia, and South Korea. And of course, it’s important to have your former colonizer as a referral. The problem is that the Netherlands is more famous for good small things — football, tall people, bicycles and a liberal society — instead of being a leader of Europe.

Still, Indonesia is a member of 20 major economies in the world, while Holland — a world leader concerning living standards — is not. This is because the Netherlands is less important for European leadership compared to France or Germany (thus its interest in G20 is managed by the EU), while Indonesia is the only viable representative of Southeast Asia. With more than 230 million people, it makes up the most of Southeast Asians. Singapore is the economic heavyweight of the region, but it is too small, and its ethnic Chinese majority is still Southeast Asia’s minority.

The political factor is important in the inclusion of Indonesia — G20 needs a member from a non-Arab Muslim economy. The option beside Indonesia is Malaysia, which is wealthier and also located in Southeast Asia. But Malaysia had created bad impressions in dealing with Australia and United States in APEC and ASEAN, and does not accept democracy. Worse, it still runs the discriminative New Economic Policy — despite its success in producing world-class private and state corporations. On the other hand, Indonesia was a founding member of APEC and always welcomes Australia and the US to various Pacific forums.

Cruising through an Indonesian city, a cynical Indonesian may say that the G20 membership is worthless. Foreign firms and foreigners are eating out the country piece by piece and have no respect for its people. The potholed roads are still congested, with beggars walking in between the cars. Then the rain comes and it’s flooding with garbage. Corruption and inefficiency are parts of daily life.

Ironically, Indonesians who say that the country should not be bothering with organizations such as G20, APEC or ASEAN are often also the same people who keep claiming that Indonesia should become a fearsome military and political power.  

They seem to forget that great powers are respected because they make money, not because they have missiles and keep saying no. China is respected not only because of the People’s Liberation Army, but also because it can afford an Olympics and it owns Volvo, ThinkPad and Hong Kong. North Korea and Iran are feared, but like Indonesia in the early 1960s, they have no friends and are missing out on the rest of the world.

South Korea was the clear winner of the G20 summit, and is one of the most important countries today. It is respected by both the US and China. Its electronics and pop stars have overtaken Japan’s. It has achieved the status by developing its cities and its people. It is a working and transparent democracy. If Indonesia needs a model, then choose South Korea. Learn how to build, to govern, to regulate, and how to make money from Seoul.

Before that happens — small chance it can happen — we have to live with the fact that Indonesia is a big and important country, but only because most of Indonesians are Muslim Southeast Asians who believe in democracy. No more than that. If Indonesians think that the world has little respect for it, it is because Indonesia still does not respect itself.   


The writer is a graduate of La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.

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