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Indonesia’s understanding of Pacific should go beyond rhetoric
The primary driving force behind our attention to the Pacific region is the strategic interest of constraining issues in Papua.
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Neighborly shake: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (left) and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape greet each other on July 5, 2023 at APEC Haus in Port Moresby, before holding a joint press conference on their bilateral meeting. (AFP/Andrew Kutan)
E
arly this year, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi proclaimed that Indonesia is a Pacific nation. This statement echoed a former Indonesian ambassador to New Zealand, who said that Indonesia was home to the largest Pacific race.
Both statements are rhetorical without a genuine understanding of the Pacific region. The Pacific identity is barely reflected at the domestic level. As a country, we have long been perceived as part of Asia, not the Pacific.
The main reason we should increase our attention to the Pacific is to help Papua deal with its human rights and political issues. As an important regional actor in the Asia-Pacific, we need to strive for a critical understanding of the region in order to play a more central role.
In the past few years, the Pacific has risen as a fulcrum for geopolitical tensions between big powers, chiefly the United States and China. Other crucial actors, such as Australia, New Zealand, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Japan, South Korea and India have intensified their presence either to jump on the bandwagon or to balance the geopolitical tension in the region.
But the increasing tension has sidelined the actual concerns of Pacific Island nations. The Pacific islands have long been perceived as dependent on international donors. Yet, in the past decade, the island countries have taken actions to be respected and accommodated in international politics.
The island countries have created the Blue Pacific as their distinctive narrative, strategy and vision to address climate change as the primary existential threat, not the Indo-Pacific narrative which focuses on economic imperatives and security domination and is championed by many countries.
In other words, Pacific nations are no longer the passive recipients of development aid and peripheral actors in their region. They are poised to determine their own priorities in solidarity at the regional and global levels. This stance is the foundation for external parties to engage with the Pacific Island nations.
