There has been clear disappointment expressed by the 2019 election activists supporting both presidential candidates for significant change, as reflected in President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo’s second-term cabinet choices.

However, the choice of including senior opposition figures in Jokowi’s cabinet, as per classic Javanese consensus, offers an opportunity for innovation in foreign policy — particularly the impartial mediation and negotiations for the Israel-Palestinian peace process.

Such an effort can also deflect international criticism of Indonesia’s perceived human-rights double standards in Papua, thus providing the Jokowi administration more time and geopolitical capital to address longstanding accusations of ethno-religious majoritarianism and similar shortcomings.

One foreign policy question worth asking is: Does the most recent Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali — who maximized dialogue and concessions to negotiate a sustainable peace agreement with former adversary state Eritrea — offer an exemplary model for Indonesia? As the Nobel Peace Prize Committee declared in recognizing Abiy’s outreach efforts, “A peaceful, stable and successful Ethiopia will help to strengthen fraternity among nations and peoples in the region.”

But where is Indonesia’s Abiy? Can Indonesia succeed in international peacebuilding, with a leadership and outreach role in the Israel-Palestinian peace process among a range of other Muslim-majority mediators such as Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates — all of which already have close governmental relations with Israel?

As of October 2019, former vice president Jusuf Kalla could ostensibly continue his retirement after two distinguished vice presidencies and a successful entrepreneurial career, after leading the world’s third-largest democracy. However, there are at least three reasons for considering that he be appointed to the designation of Indonesia’s Middle East Peace Envoy.

First, Kalla is an imperfect statesman, but skilled at negotiating peace treaties, notably with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist group in 2005. He was also the primary mediator in the Poso and Ambon domestic religious conflicts respectively in Central Sulawesi and Maluku provinces from 1998-2001.

The Notre Dame Peace Accords Matrix scores the 2005 Kalla-led Aceh peace agreement as one of the world’s most successful treaties — at 87 percent— with its peace provisions such as ceasefires, boundary demarcations, disarmaments, dispute-resolution mechanisms, reparations, and so forth that have sustained the peace. Thus Kalla may have the skills and competencies to help negotiate a long-overdue two-state solution with similar IPPP peace provisions, among third-party mediator countries.

Secondly, Kalla is one of the few realist Indonesian officials who understands that although Jakarta should be strategic and forceful in defense of Palestinians’ needs, it cannot possibly negotiate a two-state solution with only one of the parties.

This diplomatic dilemma is analogous to the 2008 Malaysian-Thai border conflict also negotiated by Kalla as a neutral third-party mediator.

Ever the pragmatist, at the 2018 Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Istanbul, Kalla stated, “In reconciling conflicts, any conflict — such as family conflicts, state conflicts, or conflicts of any kind — we should recognize both parties.

In our direct experience everywhere, and in Aceh, we must know both sides, or should be friends […] So if Indonesia talks to Israel [like Jordan, Turkey, and Egypt do], new peace can be made that way.”

Lastly, as a peace envoy, such a job description would be substantial given the fluid situation in the Mideast, but it would not overly tax Kalla’s energies if he was part of an Indonesian Track 1.5 peace delegation – one that blends governmental and non-governmental leaders to act as peace negotiators on behalf of a state. Indeed, Kalla could be a part of such a delegation on behalf of Indonesia, given its active membership in the G20, G77, OIC, and the Non-Aligned Movement.

Kalla could also advise Indonesia’s UN Security Council envoys on drafting a more balanced, pro-peace presidential statement on the IPPP during Indonesia’s rotating presidency of the council. Indonesia’s seat on the council ends this December.

Lastly, perhaps in partnership with the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), which Kalla has chaired since 2009, in parallel with the Israel-Palestine peace process he could convene disaster-management experts, medics and aid workers from both nations on how to better address mass-casualty incidents and crises.

As Kalla explained in 2014, “We can’t be a mediator if we don’t know Israel. We must be close with both Israel and Palestine.” Echoing the Kalla-led 2005 Aceh peace treaty, a Kalla-led treaty with Track 1.5 diplomacy would equally address primary concerns of both Israelis and Palestinians for a two-state solution.

A pragmatic, effective Indonesian mediator would fairly consider the primary concerns of not only the Palestinians, but also the Israelis. The primary concerns of most Israelis are: safety from asymmetric security threats like Palestinian rocket attacks and suicide terror, preserving the country’s status as the safe haven for Jewish civilization, international recognition, access to the Temple Mount, and related issues.

Likewise, most Palestinians are mainly concerned over statecraft and economic livelihoods, Israeli settlements in Area C of the West Bank, the Fatah-Hamas conflict, continued access to the Al Aqsa Mosque, and related issues. In a conclusive two-state treaty, the ancient city of Yerushalayim/Al Quds would be fairly divided into two capitals.

Indonesia cannot wait. Given the ensuing release of a range of new Israel-Palestine peace proposals like that of Trump administration’s, another regional power like Russia or a reenergized Malaysia could end up leading Middle East talks on different terms, if Indonesia still does not talk to both the Israelis and Palestinians.

After a much-deserved retirement period, Kalla might be the most pragmatic, realistic peace envoy to represent Indonesia.

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Niruban Balachandran is a 2017 graduate of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, working in Jakarta. William P. Tuchrello is the former country director of the United States’ Library of Congress in Jakarta.

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