[GNFI Weekend Edition] Everybody’s Friend

A friend of mine, just came back from South Korea for her scientific research, told me something really heartwarming. She said that Indonesia’s image in South Korea rises significantly, especially after Indonesia’s membership in the G20. Cool! Do they know that Indonesia economy will overpass them in 2016? I hope they don’t.

Well, in all fronts, this is the a golden age for Indonesian global diplomacy. Our international standing has risen. Besides being a serious applicant-in-waiting for what would become the BRIIC (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China), group of leading emerging markets, it is a member of the G20 group of countries that is taking on more responsibility for running the world.

It is seen as a democratic bulwark against extremist Islam, and as a vital American, and European ally. Hillary Clinton included Indonesia on her first foreign tour as secretary of state. President Barack Obama, who spent four years at school in Jakarta, is due to visit, probably in November, or early next year at latest. As already noted, China and India are also courting Indonesia. So are Japan and the European Union.

As much the most populous country in South-East Asia, and its biggest economy, Indonesia has always played a dominant role in ASEAN. Without Indonesia, ASEAN would only become a sleepy regional pact. There are complete signs that Indonesia becomes more assertive than ever before, and in an encouraging way—speaking up for the importance of democracy and human rights in a group that is too often prepared to soft-pedal, especially over Myanmar.

ASEAN economic integration is underway, at snail speed, and most likely Indonesia will become the major player considering the huge market, growing number of middle class society, and so. It is important to point to this year’s decision by Volkswagen of Germany to assemble cars in Java for the ASEAN market. The underlying argument is that Indonesia, because of the size of its domestic market, should be the logical destination for foreign investors looking for a base within ASEAN from which to attack the regional market.

However, Indonesia need to work harder to improve its image. We suffers unfairly from an outside perception that it is a risky and unstable place. An instructive comparison is with India, which has seen far more violent and intractable insurgencies—from Kashmir on the periphery to Maoist Naxalites in its very heart. It is also prey to many more frequent and murderous terrorist attacks, and has testy relations with a nuclear-armed neighbor. Yet, in stark contrast to Indonesia, it is considered a bastion of stability. In addition to that, our national media seems tireless to bombard with negative news. That is one reason why this blog was established.

Indonesia also need to go and become an influential power beyond ASEAN border, and we have all needed to do so. We have shown remarkable powers of recovery, a speedy and steady growth, after a long dictatorship and sudden economic collapse in 1998. Indonesia can be a model of democratic change, Muslim tolerance, poverty alleviation, and rapid economic development.

Indonesia is a country in progress, a country that is still struggling to meet its interlinked goals of sustained economic prosperity and political stability. But it is inching closer, and its chances of getting there have never been better.

Friends Of Indonesia

Losing a friend is hard to do, but losing a friend at the hand of fanatics and plain murderers is hard to comprehend and deal with. In The Jakarta Post’s article on July 21, Endy M. Bayuni pays homage to foreigners that made a difference in embracing and promoting Indonesia as a country that, for a decade now, has made enormous progression in an effort to place itself on par with countries where living safe comes natural and where democratization is good for all who work and live there.

As a foreigner, only when you work and live here, are you able to grasp the significance of what Indonesians have achieved in such a short period of time and in a perpetuating struggle that actually started more than sixty years ago, and only after they were freed from Portuguese, British and Dutch colonial rule.

Indonesia is the world’s largest Islamic country. Indonesia is also the world’s most moderate, modern and peaceful Islamic nation. Its bright minds come from the ranks of all five major faiths that exists in this country.

If there is an (Islamic) country that could stand as a role model and representative for a faith that is considered tolerant and inward looking and that is considered to be one of the five great faiths in the world, then Indonesia is the country where anyone, regardless of faith, race or color, would want to work and live.

In the twenty years that I am back in the country where I was born, I have experienced many changes for the better. Having spent the majority of my adult live during the sixties, the seventies and the eighties in Europe, I know that most countries in the western world have struggled many, many more decades to achieve same. True, Indonesia still has a long way to go.

But one thing is sure; in a bid to become a nation in which all layers of society will find happiness and a secure environment to safely bring up its next generation, it surely will walk that road, head up high.

Indonesians are warm-hearted, friendly and above all resilient people. It would be unfair only to judge Indonesia based on what has happened at the hands of a fanatic disenfranchised minority that that is worshiped by a handful and that has no consideration for the goals as set by ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the Indonesian people.

Except from in the dark caves and black holes and tiny communities in which they thrive, the world over, terrorists are not known for being heroic individuals.

Given the fact that terrorists truly have their own agenda and the fact that they severely lack a sense of belonging, their names, in comparison to the names of the people that perished on July 17, will rapidly be forgotten and will forever fade into the dust created by their devious acts of terrorism. Unfortunately, and for some time to come, Indonesians will still find their own worse enemy close at home, be it in Indonesia, or in its neighboring country Malaysia from which the foreign and rather barbaric mastermind behind the bombings apparently hails.

It is unfortunate, that the masterminds behind all suicide bombings, here and elsewhere, are not the ones that carry out the bombings themselves. For that, the cowards will always prey on rather young and often naive people that could do the dirty job for them and that are willing to sacrifice their lives for a cause that is pretty dubious and questionable, to say the least. Catching the man behind the recent bombings is a tall order. Therefore, we have to lift each and every stone under which he cowardly is hiding until his rather sick mind tells him to come out in a bid to prove to himself that he is the God-sent hero he thinks he is. The real and unsung hero is the person that makes a difference in this country, Indonesian or foreigner. Unlike the mastermind and terrorist, he or she is not adored by a handful, but by a land-full.

Losing a friend is hard to do, and sadly, on July 17, Indonesia has lost some of its best friends, Indonesian and foreigner. Now, more than any time in its sometime troubled past, Indonesia is in dire need of real friends. Rest assured that it still has many!

Dennis G. Kloeth
Jakarta