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First female envoy marks new era in RI-Oz ties
Gender cooperation in focus amid stable bilateral relationship
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he appointment of Australian career diplomat Penny Williams as her country’s first female ambassador to Indonesia is expected to bring greater bilateral cooperation efforts on gender equality, experts say, with Australia and Indonesia both having women lead their respective foreign services and who have been working closely on these issues.
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced the appointment last week just as outgoing Ambassador Gary Quinlan ended his three-year tenure in Jakarta.
His successor is also a career diplomat at Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), who recently rose up the ranks to become deputy secretary.
Williams is fluent in Indonesian and spent time in the country as a high school exchange student back in the early 1980s.
She has previously served as Australia’s high commissioner to Malaysia and was the first Australian ambassador for women and girls, Payne said in a statement published last Wednesday.
Payne herself is currently doing double duty as Australia’s Minister for Women, and has worked closely with her Indonesian counterpart Retno LP Marsudi, who was the country’s first woman to become a top diplomat.
Both sides have worked together on various women’s issues, including greater participation in peace and security. Retno also struck up a close friendship with Payne’s predecessor Julie Bishop, who was also Australia’s first female foreign minister.
The Indonesian Foreign Ministry’s director for East Asia and Pacific affairs, Santo Darmosumarto, who oversees the Australia portfolio, said the Australian chief of mission in Jakarta was considered a strategic post usually held by the country’s most seasoned diplomats.
And while women's empowerment and gender issues are among the main focal points of the relationship, Santo said the two sides had yet to embark on specific activities together in this space.
“What usually happens is that the two countries support each other in various multilateral or regional initiatives on gender issues, as is the case with the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda at the United Nations,” he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Australia also supported Indonesia’s initiative to set up the Southeast Asian Network of Women Peace Negotiators and Mediators, which aims to get women from the region involved in meaningful participation in all phases of a peace process, either as mediators or negotiators.
Santo said both sides had acknowledged the need to have more cooperation on women’s issues in the Plan of Action for the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership – signed by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo during his visit to Australia last year.
In development cooperation, the two countries have encouraged initiatives to promote women’s leadership and cooperation that supports small and medium enterprises.
In defense cooperation, the two sides are promoting the greater role of women in defense and the military, while continuing existing engagements under the ASEAN-Australia Women, Peace and Security Dialogue.
“Hopefully [with the appointment of Ambassador Williams] there can be further emphasis on women’s issues,” Santo said.
Indonesia and Australia, after a dynamic period of diplomatic highs and lows in the past few decades, currently lead a stable relationship underpinned by last year’s passage and ratification of their Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
Having both appointed women to lead their respective foreign ministries for close to a decade, the partners have found more common ground in women’s empowerment.
Fitriani, a researcher at the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said the two countries needed to strengthen cooperation in this field as they tried to recover from the excesses of the pandemic. They also need to work closely together on other security issues including counterterrorism and middle power cooperation amid a tense United States-China rivalry.
She said the WPS agenda was especially important for Indonesia, considering the growing number of women actively involved as agents of peace and as religious leaders.
However, at the same time, there was also an increase in the number of women who are involved in terrorist attacks.
“On gender cooperation, I think the presence of Penny Williams will be interesting to see; how Australia can set an example to encourage more female senior diplomats and ambassadors. Maybe Indonesia could consider a reciprocal gesture by sending a female ambassador to Australia,” she told the Post on Tuesday.
A senior diplomat and close aide of Minister Retno, Siswo Pramono, is currently the frontrunner to become the next Indonesian ambassador to Australia, with current envoy in Canberra Kristiarto Legowo expected to retire soon.
