For a country strategically located in the intersection of the Indian and Pacific oceans, Indonesia had come rather late to fully appreciating its maritime potential, said Geoffrey Till, a professor in maritime security and defense from King’s College London.

He explained there was a difference between being a maritime country and a maritime power, as the latter would mean it had the capacity to defend its maritime interests, which was among the reasons why President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo set out the Global Maritime Fulcrum (GMF) vision.

“Not knowing how many fishing boats are stealing how much of your fish seems to me an indication that you're not quite there yet [as a maritime power],” Till said during a discussion held by the CSIS in Jakarta on Tuesday.

His commentary was a reference to the recent diplomatic spat between Jakarta and Beijing at the beginning of the year, after it was revealed that Chinese vessels had made repeated trips into the North Natuna Sea to fish illegally.

China argues it has the right to fish in what it claims to be its own “traditional fishing grounds”, a claim that Indonesia flatly rejects as being without legal basis.

Jokowi, who visited Natuna again to briefly preside over investigations into illegal activity, said Indonesia's sovereign rights in the waters of the Natuna Islands were "nonnegotiable", a message that was amplified and repeated by other senior members of the government.

For all its megaphone diplomacy against China, the government has come under scrutiny for the lack of resources and infrastructure required to defend its borders and cultivate a stalled maritime industry – not just in Natuna.

Till pointed out that with its geographic position, Indonesia had control over vital sea routes, which, if it exploited them to its maximum potential, would result in the country gaining a strategic advantage as an aspirational maritime power, “provided that it has the capacity – not just the claimed jurisdiction – to be able to exercise it”.

The scholar said, however, that preoccupations on dry land had largely distracted Indonesia from fulfilling its maritime potential. Observers have noted how the GMF vision that Jokowi campaigned on before being elected has largely disappeared from the official narrative.

The GMF doctrine is based on Jokowi’s pledge in 2014, to capitalize on Indonesia’s geographic position to make Indonesia a “fulcrum” of Indo-Pacific maritime activity. It has since been codified in a 2017 presidential regulation on national sea policy.

“I would worry if the Global Maritime Fulcrum idea kind of dropped out of the priority list of the government at this stage, if it gets sidetracked by some other current preoccupations, because I think that would undermine the prospect that it expects,” Till said.

He said one of the most important things for Indonesia was persistent leadership, when it seemed there was a tendency to assume that a country could become a greater maritime power “almost overnight”.

“That is completely untrue. All historical experience suggests that this is a process that takes a very long time – It needs patience and insistence,” he said. (tjs)

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