With no word either from the Foreign Ministry and a lack of confirmation from the TNI and the Executive Office of the President (KSP), questions have arisen as to whether Indonesia, as this year’s ASEAN chair, was still considering military engagement as its strategy to address the Myanmar crisis.

Jokowi first made the suggestion in a recent interview with a foreign news agency, but it soon became clear that it was an off-the-cuff and not an actual strategy, even as some analysts noted that a military-to-military dialogue might have merit and the idea had a successful precedent.

Instead, private conversations over the idea indicates the strategy might have an inherent weakness in, including a notion that Myanmar’s junta regime did not perceive the TNI as a model for how an armed forces should be positioned in relation to government.

More than two years after the military junta deposed Myanmar’s democratically elected civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup on Feb. 1, 2021, there was still no indication that the defiant regime of Min Aung Hlaing was going to comply with the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus, calling for the cessation of violence and holding inclusive dialogue toward reconciliation.

The two previous special envoys of the ASEAN chair on Myanmar, appointed by past chairs Brunei and Cambodia as outlined in the consensus, have also made barely any progress.

With the ball now in Indonesia’s court, anticipation climbed to its highest point after the President expressed his intention to appoint a high-ranking general as the next ASEAN special envoy on Myanmar.

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