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Indonesia should be more active in foreign policy, former ministers say
Indonesia needs to walk the talk in order to seize on the opportunities to direct geopolitical discourse and leverage its strategic value, previous foreign ministers and senior foreign policy experts have said, amid accusations of passivity in Indonesia's global ambitions.
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President Joko Widodo (second left) and Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi (right) attend the ASEAN leaders' summit at the association's secretariat in Jakarta on April 24, 2021. (Handout/Muchlis Jr/Indonesian Presidential Palace via REUTERS)
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ndonesia’s “independent and active” foreign policy doctrine is apparently not active enough, according to past foreign ministers and senior international relations experts, as they caution against the pitfalls of diplomacy ahead of the nation’s Group of Twenty (G20) presidency and ASEAN chairmanship.
The government on Tuesday kicked off preparations for its G20 presidency beginning on Dec. 1 in a world of geopolitical and geoeconomic upheaval, punctuated by the existential crisis of ASEAN in Myanmar, the race to spur economic recovery from a deadly pandemic and the dilemma of facing a superpower rivalry in its own backyard.
As part of a series of dialogues commemorating its 50th anniversary, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) invited the country’s foreign policy dignitaries to comment on the state of the bebas-aktif (independent and active) doctrine and its future direction.
The consensus was clear: Indonesia needs to walk the talk in order to seize on the opportunities to direct geopolitical discourse and leverage its strategic value, amid accusations of passivity in its global ambitions.
Firm mandate
Since then-vice president Mohammad Hatta articulated the independent and active doctrine in 1948, Indonesian leaders have adopted distinct ideas for its expression.
The most common perception is that Indonesia would go about its international relations “independently” without pledging allegiance to any one party or side. It would also be “active” in maintaining world peace, whether in the global multilateral order or otherwise, as per constitutional mandate.
