When the Indonesian president, Mr Jokowi, set off for Washington on 25 October, expectations about the outcomes of the visit were not especially high. While it was the Jokowi\u2019s first visit to the US as president, it was not to be the first meeting between him and Obama. They had met, for instance, on the sidelines of various regional meetings in Asia in 2014, including the G20 in Brisbane. Nor were there any pressing matters on the bilateral agenda that needed attention. Jokowi himself said that the items slated for discussion were mainly in investment and trade, and also in the digital and creative economies. It was also speculated that China\u2019s activities in the South China Sea and the recently agreed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) would come up for discussion.
\nIn fact, the visit took an unexpected, and to many Indonesians, somewhat alarming, course as a consequence of two developments. The first presented itself as a domestic challenge with some unwelcome international repercussions, namely the expanding ferocity of the intentionally lit fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra. These had been raging for some weeks. But an inability to control them and the consequent pall of thick choking smoke which had began spread over parts of Indonesia itself, and also neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia, was now causing resentment and increasing irritation throughout the affected areas.<\/p>\n
As hostility increased both at home and abroad, Jokowi judged that remaining away in distant America while a local crisis unfolded was bad politics. After his meeting with President Obama he summarily terminated his visit and headed back home. He set up office in a local government building in South Sumatra and was soon seen to be a concerned and attentive leader trying to assist in the management of a situation that the professionals on the ground regarded virtually beyond immediate control.<\/p>\n
The decision to return home from America early may have reflected good political\u00a0instincts on the part of a president who owes his election to a strong populist campaign, but it underscored the challenge Jokowi continues to confront in trying to strike the right balance between domestic and international interests of his administration. Returning home early meant that the president missed a visit to Silicon Valley, a part of the visit that was expected to focus attention on the need for Indonesia to embrace technological innovation and reform in the age of the digital economy.<\/p>\n
Nor did the other development on the visit offer commentators any assurance on presidential decision making. During his 26 October joint press conference with Obama, Jokowi announced that Indonesia planned to join the TPP within the next two years. While this was no doubt welcomed by Obama, it came as a surprise in Indonesia where the possibility had been barely contemplated. Since then the issue has only become more controversial as an increasing number of public critics of the policy have emerged. To many of these critics, a presidential policy decision has once again seemed to lack an obvious justification and rationale and had been made without adequate debate and preparation.<\/p>\n
While many members of the TPP, not least Australia, would welcome Indonesian membership, the local domestic challenges to securing it are formidable. Most especially, the free trade emphasis in the TPP is at odds with the obvious nationalist thrust of Jokowi\u2019s domestic economic policy, directed, for example, to secure Indonesia\u2019s long term food security. There may be also some complex constitutional questions to be resolved before membership would be possible.<\/p>\n
The debate comes at a time when many Indonesians are preoccupied with the policy challenges posed by the economic downturn the country has been facing for the past year. The response of many political leaders has been to urge a strengthening of trade, tariff and other barriers to insulate the domestic economy from the effects of China\u2019s declining rate of economic growth and the rise in the value of the US dollar. Added to these concerns is membership of the ASEAN Economic Community due to come into being on 1 January and for which many sectors of the economy seem quite unprepared. In this context, the TPP is for many a bridge too far. And in the background of the debate is a subterranean discussion over Indonesia\u2019s relations with the US, about which Indonesians remain divided and ambivalent. Here a keen matter of public contention revolves around the consequences for Indonesia\/ China relations of Jakarta aligning itself with a US policy initiative declared by Washington to be an important element in Obama\u2019s rebalance towards Asia.<\/p>\n
After just over a year in office, President Jokowi\u2019s approval rating among Indonesians is declining. Not only have the high expectations created by his election gone unfulfilled, his administration has mismanaged a series of policy issues, not least, some very sensitive consumer issues such as the market supply of beef. Poor decisions by barely competent cabinet appointees help to explain some of these failures, but as the TPP decision underscores, the president himself has to accept considerable responsibility.<\/p>\n
With limited political experience at the national level, Jokowi is finding it very difficult to develop coherent decision making processes and to assert his authority over Indonesia\u2019s complex political system. Issues where the government\u2019s domestic political agenda intersect with its foreign policy ambitions, as is the case with the TPP and the fires, as well as the executions of Chan and Sukumaran, are proving particularly challenging. Jokowi has time to change direction but for the moment his government is struggling to evolve reliably effective (and coherent) policy making processes.<\/p>\n
Article by Russell Trood, Professor and Director, Griffith Asia Institute (GAI) and GAI Adjunct Professor Colin Brown.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When the Indonesian president, Mr Jokowi, set off for Washington on 25 October, expectations about the outcomes of the visit were not especially high. While it was the Jokowi\u2019s first visit to the US as president, it was not to be the first meeting between him and Obama. They had met, for instance, on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":1768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[247],"tags":[344,366,390,398,532],"class_list":["post-892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indonesia-and-southeast-asia","tag-indonesia","tag-mr-jokowi","tag-professor-colin-brown","tag-professor-russell-trood","tag-trans-pacific-partnership"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"Christine Kowalski","yoast_head":"\n