Luhut Pandjaitan (JP/Seto Wardhana)

An Indonesian campaigner for a Nobel-winning antinuclear movement has expressed his dismay after a senior aide of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said he was considering the possibility of a nuclear-powered Indonesia, a prospect increasingly shunned by today’s younger generation.

Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investments Minister Luhut Pandjaitan made headlines this week after sharing an anecdote about a chat he had with a former United States general on the sidelines of this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which had apparently triggered his need to start a conversation about Indonesia possessing nuclear power.

Luhut, himself a well-respected former army general, recounted how he felt Indonesia was “overlooked” during a discussion among former military men from nuclear weapon-wielding countries such as China and North Korea, and took it upon himself to suggest to the President that Jakarta should look into the prospect of “owning nuclear power”.

While it is unclear whether the senior bureaucrat implied the ownership of nuclear energy or nuclear weapons, his comments were enough to set off alarm bells among antinuclear activists.

Muhadi Sugiono, an international relations lecturer at Gadjah Mada University, voiced concern that officials like Luhut could be sending the public the wrong message with his comments, which run contrary to the message Muhadi and his fellow campaigners at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) are promoting.

"The statement was shocking. I hope that what has been stated by the minister is just a joke and not a serious ambition," Muhadi told The Jakarta Post this week.

ICAN is a global nuclear disarmament movement that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.

Indonesia has been a constant advocate for nuclear disarmament, Muhadi said. “Even the foreign minister has said that Indonesia places denuclearization near the top of its list of foreign policy priorities.”

In a statement issued last year, the Foreign Ministry’s Directorate for International Security and Disarmament maintained “Indonesia’s diplomacy is directed toward denuclearization and to support the international community in efforts toward nuclear-weapon nonproliferation and disarmament”.

The ministry also stated that Indonesia had "no intention of developing nor testing nuclear weapons” and therefore “supports the international community in achieving the universality of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty [CTBT]”.

Indonesia is also a signatory of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which is yet to enter into force on account of the lack of political will among nuclear weapon-wielding countries to commit to denuclearization.

Muhadi insisted that a country’s bargaining power had no correlation with the possession of nuclear weapons.

“On the contrary, with the acknowledgment Indonesia has [made] of numerous antinuclear treaties [...] having nuclear weapons would alienate Indonesia, as is the case with Iran, North Korea or other countries that have ambitions to develop nuclear weapons,” he said.

Meanwhile, Iran's representative in Indonesia suggested that Indonesia should continue on the path of using nuclear power in nonthreatening ways such as in the energy sector.

Newly arrived Iranian Ambassador to Indonesia Mohammad Azzad asserted that his country’s nuclear development program was not meant to be exclusively for military purposes.

“When you [master] nuclear engineering, you send a message to the world that you will master it in a peaceful manner, a strong message that your capacity in science and technology is advanced,” the ambassador told reporters in Jakarta this week.

Azzad said that in his country it was the younger generation that played a vital role in advancing science and technology, including in the development of nuclear power.

Similarly, should Indonesia feel ready to advance its nuclear technology, the diplomat said a lot would depend on the preparedness of its young scientists and engineers.

While those in power may count on the possession of nuclear weapons as a politically viable option, there is a growing sentiment among the younger generation to reject the idea of becoming a nuclear-weapon power.

A recent study commissioned by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and global market research firm Ipsos shows that millennials in 16 countries including Indonesia are strongly against the idea of their countries possessing nuclear weapons.

Some 80 percent of Indonesian youth surveyed said that nuclear weapons were never acceptable, which corresponds with the views of at least two-thirds of respondents worldwide. More than half of all respondents — 54 percent — believe nuclear weapons should be banned outright.

Agung Arke, 25, believes that Indonesia should not have nuclear weapons. The Bali-based private sector employee questioned Indonesia’s capability to handle nuclear weapons, saying that he is “not sure Indonesia could properly manage the privilege of having nuclear weapons”.

Among the minority of millennials who look to more pragmatic uses of nuclear power, 24-year-old Annissa said that as long as they were not used to go to war, she was okay with it.

“I think we could utilize [it] for many purposes outside of bombs,” said the Jakarta-based employee, referring to the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in 1945. (tjs)

— Made Anthony Iswara contributed to this story.

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