TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Regretting Jokowi’s UN absence
There are no other acceptable reasons, including the domestic political situation, for the President to not go to New York, the United States, to address the world audience.
Change Size
President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo gives a speech at the launch of the first public electric-vehicle charging station, which will be used for electric vehicles transporting world leaders during the Group of Twenty (G20) upcoming October conference, in Nusa Dua, Bali, on March 25.
(AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka)
That President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo opted to skip the United Nations General Assembly for the seventh straight year is regrettable as he has wasted a precious opportunity to speak up in such a crucial world forum.
Whatever excuses to justify his absence, Jokowi’s decision is a diplomatic blunder that he may later regret. He belittles the fact that he is the leader of the world’s third-largest democracy, the world’s fourth-most populous nation, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, the de-facto leader of ASEAN and holder of the Group of 20 (G20) presidency. All the credentials should have given him the world attention he deserves to advance not only national interests but also the causes of peoples and communities that need Indonesia’s help. And who knows, his speech to the global audience might have entered history books.
True, each leader receives only 15 minutes at the most to speak at the Assembly, which may be incomparable with the over-20-hour flight from Jakarta to New York, the United States. But the presence of so many world leaders should give Jokowi a lot of opportunities to meet and strike deals, especially because he will host the G20 summit in Bali in November.
Later that month, Jokowi will take over the chairmanship of ASEAN, one of the world’s most influential regional organizations, from Cambodia.
There are no other acceptable reasons, including the domestic political situation, for the President to not go to New York to address the world audience amid his rising reputation as one of prominent international leaders. Jakarta and several other cities across the country have witnessed street demonstrations to reject the government’s fuel price hike policy, but so far, the police have managed to maintain peace and order, so Jokowi should have had nothing to worry about.
The Jakarta Post quoted Foreign Ministry’s Director General for Multilateral Cooperation Tri Tharyat as saying on Monday that the President would not attend the UNGA again this year and Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi would address the forum on Jokowi’s behalf. The official implied that the ministry had informed the President about several scheduled events that need the President’s presence.
Jokowi’s no-show would put Retno in a difficult situation because the international community had eagerly anticipated the President’s attendance.
During his first term, Jokowi used to assign his deputy Jusuf Kalla to attend the UNGA, but the current Vice President Ma’ruf Amin is just too old for such a long journey.
Late June, Jokowi traveled by train for about 13 hours from Warsaw to Kyiv in Ukraine to personally convey an invitation for President Volodymyr Zelensky to attend the Bali summit. Afterward Jokowi traveled to Moscow to convey the same invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also flew to Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul to discuss the Bali summit with his hosts. But he did not go to the UNGA, apparently for almost no clear reason.
The President has intentionally missed a great opportunity to appear in a prestigious global stage to express his views and advice about world security and economic challenges. One day, the President will acknowledge that even he cannot forgive himself for such a disappointing decision.
