Indonesia at Home and Abroad Economics, Politics and Security
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INDONESIA AT HOME AND ABROAD ECONOMICS, POLITICS AND SECURITY Edited by Christopher B Roberts, Ahmad D Habir and Leonard C Sebastian National Security College Issue Briefs Nos. 1–14, May 2014 National Security College Crawford School of Public Policy A joint initiative of the College of Commonwealth Government and Asia & the Pacific The Australian National University ABOUT THE NSC RESEARCH PROJECT ON INDONESIA This inaugural suite of papers for the National Security College Issue Brief Series is also a component of an NSC research grant investigating the prospects, challenges and opportunities associated with Indonesia’s ascent in the political-security, economic, and socio-cultural spheres. The chief investigators for this project are Dr Christopher Roberts, Dr Ahmad Habir, and Associate Professor Leonard Sebastian. These issue briefs represent a short precursor to a fi fteen chapter edited book, titled Indonesia’s Ascent: Power, Leadership and the Regional Order, to be published by Palgrave MacMillan in late 2014. The project also involved conferences and fi eldwork in both Canberra and Jakarta between 2012 and 2013. CONTENTS The historical foundations of Indonesia’s regional and global role, 1945–75 1 Sue Thompson Indonesia: The economic foundations of security 9 Satish Mishra Democratic achievement and policy paralysis: Implications for Indonesia’s continued ascent 17 Stephen Sherlock Politics, security and defence in Indonesia: Interactions and interdependencies 25 Iis Gindarsah Security fault lines: Unresolved issues and new challenges 33 Bob Lowry The foreign policy nexus: National interests, political values and identity 41 Avery Poole Normative priorities and contradictions in Indonesia’s foreign policy: From Wawasan Nusantara to democracy 51 Ahmad D Hadir, Aditya Batara Gunawan and Muhammad Tri Andika Indonesia in international institutions: Living up to ideals 59 Yulius Purwadi Hermawan Indonesia and the Law of the Sea: Beyond the archipelagic outlook 67 Leonard C Sebastian, Ristian Atriandi Supriyanto and I Made Andi Arsana Indonesia and the democratic middle powers: A new basis for collaboration? 77 Mark Beeson and Will Lee Australia’s relations with Indonesia: Progress despite economic and socio-cultural constraints? 85 Christopher B Roberts and Ahmad D Habir Key intra-ASEAN bilateral relationships: Opportunities and challenges 97 Yongwook Ryu Indonesia in ASEAN: Mediation, leadership, and extra-mural diplomacy 105 Erlina Widyaningsih and Christopher B Roberts Indonesia among the powers: Should ASEAN still matter to Indonesia? 117 See Seng Tan National Security College The historical foundations of Indonesia’s regional and global role 1945–75 Sue Thompson National Security College Issue Brief No 1 May 2014 1 National Security College ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr Sue Thompson is the Graduate Convenor at the National Security College in the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University. Prior to completing a PhD at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, Sue worked as an international news journalist for the Associated Press and as a ministerial adviser in the Australian Parliament. She has held academic positions as Lecturer in International Studies at the University of Canberra and as Research Coordinator at the Asia-Pacifi c Civil- Military Centre of Excellence. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Authors: Thompson, Sue. Title: The historical foundations of Indonesia’s regional and global role, 1945–75 [electronic resource] / Sue Thompson. ISSN/ISBN: ISBN 978-1-925084-04-7 ISSN 2203 - 4935 (print) ISSN 2203-5842 (online) Series: National Security College issue brief (Online) Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Subjects: National security--Australia--21st century. Military planning--Australia. Political leadership--Australia--21st century. Australia--Politics and government--21st century. Other Authors/Contributors: Australian National University, National Security College Dewey Number: 355.0330994 The historical foundations of Indonesia’s regional and global role, 1945–75 2 INTRODUCTION However, the Dutch did not possess suffi cient military power to restore its colonial authority, and sought British and Australian Indonesia’s eventful history since independence is that of a assistance. Britain had the responsibility of disarming Japan rising power in Asia and increasingly important nation on the in southern Indochina and western Indonesia, including the world stage. Many scholars have highlighted Indonesia’s large most populous island there, Java. Australia held military control population and its abundance of strategic resources as the over eastern Indonesia. Australian troops allowed Dutch 1 reason for its prominence in regional and global affairs. Some forces to reestablish a military presence in the East Indonesian have also emphasised Indonesia’s strong sense of nationalism islands, where Republic of Indonesia forces were weaker. Yet, as a legacy of its long struggle for independence from Dutch Britain was initially unwilling to permit Dutch troops to land 2 colonialism, while others have stressed the importance of in the republican strongholds of Java and Sumatra, having 3 international relations during the Cold War. Stemming from being forewarned that it would be a major military task, thus these three perspectives are considerations of how much pressing the Dutch into negotiations. London’s concern was infl uence Indonesian leaders themselves have had on their that a given area of Southeast Asia could be disadvantaged by nation’s future, and the degree to which outside powers shaped instability in its other sectors, both economically and politically. the development of Southeast Asia’s most populous country. Consequently, the welfare of British territories in the Far Indeed, the primary source material in this chapter shows that East depended on the stability of other parts of that region.4 Indonesia’s regional position was forged by various factors. Recovery of trade and assets of the Netherlands East Indies Internationally, Indonesia was considered strategically and depended on settlement of the troubles in Java. London saw its economically important, and examples of the close ties between role as ‘trustees for our Allies the French and the Dutch, whose the Suharto government and the United States reveal both sovereignty in their respective colonial territories we have a the infl uence that Jakarta could wield and its dependence on strong moral obligation to restore’ and therefore hoped to play a foreign support. leading role in a settlement between the nationalist movements and Britain’s own allies.5 REVOLUTION AND INDEPENDENCE America and the Cold War became key factors in Indonesian Before independence, Indonesia had been a major colony independence. After World War II, the United States was in Southeast Asia, ruled by the Dutch and known as the rebuilding the Japanese economy with a view to preventing the Netherlands East Indies consisting of wealthy estates spread of communism in the region. Japan’s economic progress producing rubber, sugar, spices, tea and other crops. Under would depend greatly on expanded exports of industrial goods the Dutch, all Indonesian expressions of nationalism were and imports of regional resources. Washington had begun to suppressed. The colonial administration refused requests for consider Southeast Asia, and especially resource-rich Indonesia indigenous participation in the work of government, and exiled as a good market for Japanese trade. In 1947, the United nationalist leaders. Thus, by 1942, many Indonesians were States provided aid to the Netherlands East Indies to fast-track hostile to Dutch rule. economic reconstruction and resume trade in the region. This aid had been supplied on the assumption that the Dutch would The Second World War prepared the foundation for change. regain sovereignty over all of Indonesia. Washington noted In 1942 the Japanese occupied the Netherlands East Indies, that the goal of Indonesian nationalists, despite making public freeing exiled nationalist leaders and promising Indonesian statements about welcoming private foreign capital, appeared independence. Indonesian nationalists then exploited the power ‘to be the achievement of a state along Socialist lines’ and that vacuum created by the Japanese surrender in 1945. In Jakarta republican leaders seemed to be trying to balance their ‘basic on 17 August Achmed Sukarno proclaimed independence and Socialist aspirations’ with the need to attract foreign capital for became Indonesia’s fi rst president. Despite this declaration, the sake of the economy.6 Holland was keen to reestablish its position in Southeast Asia. For the Dutch, Indonesia remained of great economic value and was important for Holland’s post-war economic recovery as well as a symbol of its wider world importance. 1 Evan A. Laksmana, ‘Indonesia’s Rising Regional and Global Profi le: Does 4 ‘Paper on Principal British Interests in the Far East’, (January 1946), CO Size Really Matter?’, Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and 537/4718, The British National Archives, TNA. Strategic Affairs, Vol.33, No.2, August 2011, p. 157. 5 ‘Draft paper by Far East Civil Planning Unit, Circulated by Cabinet Offi ce’, (14 2 Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Indonesia in ASEAN: Foreign Policy and Regionalism, January 1946), CO537/1478, TNA. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, (Singapore: 1994), p. 17. 6 ‘Background Information on Far Eastern Countries: