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Indonesia's Response in the South China Sea Disputes: a Comparative Analysis of the Soeharto and the Post-Soeharto Era Aplianta, Derry

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Indonesia's Response in the South China Sea Disputes: a Comparative Analysis of the Soeharto and the Post-Soeharto Era Aplianta, Derry www.ssoar.info Indonesia's response in the South China Sea disputes: a comparative analysis of the Soeharto and the post-Soeharto era Aplianta, Derry Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Aplianta, D. (2015). Indonesia's response in the South China Sea disputes: a comparative analysis of the Soeharto and the post-Soeharto era. Journal of ASEAN Studies, 3(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.21512/jas.v3i1.749 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY-NC Lizenz (Namensnennung- This document is made available under a CC BY-NC Licence Nicht-kommerziell) zur Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu (Attribution-NonCommercial). For more Information see: den CC-Lizenzen finden Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.de Diese Version ist zitierbar unter / This version is citable under: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-461921 Indonesia’s Response in the South China Sea Disputes: A comparative analysis of the Soeharto and the post-Soeharto era Derry Aplianta Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Indonesia Abstract Before it developed into a dispute among China and Southeast Asian nations, the South China Sea has been disputed long before it became what it is today. The post-World War II era brought a fresh start to a new chapter of dispute, as China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam laid their claims one by one. This study contends that under Suharto’s iron fist rule, Indonesia’s interest to the South China Sea dispute grew from maintaining Indonesia’s territorial integrity to maintaining domestic stability. The former took shape after being threatened by China’s map which claimed a part of the former’s territorial waters, while the later grew in through establishing deeper trade cooperation with China. Despite the half-hearted normalization with China, Indonesia managed to establish a track-two forum for parties involved in the South China Sea dispute, which is later proven to be instrumental. Under President Yudhoyono, Indonesia gradually played its initial role from a passive into an active honest broker, which brought improvements to the process. This research attempts to show that constraint to Indonesia’s role in the South China Sea dispute originates from both the ideological and historical factors. Indonesia’s long-running ideological constraints set its priorities to its interest to the dispute, while its foreign policy doctrine serves as a pragmatic means to achieve its goals of interests. Indonesia’s past relationship with China also played a part in influencing Indonesia’s response which later evolved as the relations went through ups and downs. Moreover, the unclear integration process of ASEAN sets the task of the honest broker became a one- country-show for Indonesia. Key words: South China Sea, Dispute, Indonesia, China, ASEAN Introduction China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Although the dispute may The South China Sea (SCS) dispute have developed into a complex ensued as a result of inter-overlapping phenomenon of what it is today, it actually territorial claims from Brunei Darussalam, started as a result of an even more complex Journal of ASEAN Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1 (2015), pp. 1-21 ©2015 by CBDS Bina Nusantara University and Indonesian Association for International Relations ISSN 2338-1361 print / ISSN 2338-1353 electronic 2 Indonesia’s Response in the South China Sea Disputes occurring which directly or indirectly Indonesia’s foreign policy during the involved a lot more states. Simply put, the reform and democratic era, and how the dispute is a situation which serves as an transformation alluded Indonesia’s foreign outcome of an ongoing interaction among policy with the country’s ongoing response the entities in perceiving their territories. to the SCS dispute in particular. Although it may give less weight from the international legal perspective, we may trace the beginning of the dispute through Indonesia’s Response to the South China extensive chronological review of any Sea Dispute during Suharto’s Period recorded activities in the SCS, dating from as early as the ancient times to give a better Indonesia and the Normalization of the understanding of the situation which lead Diplomatic Relations with China to the one we currently see today. Another way to trace the origins of the dispute is to Suharto’s reign to power marks the selectively present the historical records era called the ‚New Order‛ for Indonesia. which suggest that there were any The dichotomy was created to serve as a indication of dispute among two or more distinction from the era where Sukarno parties to the area. This study investigates ruled Indonesia for more than two decades, reaction of the Indonesian government and which is dubbed as ‚Old Order‛. This what may cause that reaction since the means aside from Suharto as the new head authoritarian Soeharto until the democratic of state, the ‚new‛ terminology also regime of Susilo B. Yudhoyono. This study brought new faces in Indonesian socio- found that Indonesia’s response to SCS political life, which in turn brought dispute during the New Order Era grew Indonesia to a new style of leadership. The from maintaining over territorial integrity leadership, where Suharto remained in the to actively accommodate peaceful talks center, was an alliance of the armed forces, between claimant countries in the reform intellectuals, religious groups, and political era which might reflect Indonesia’s growing parties, under the political system known as interests of the dispute itself or parties to the Pancasila Democracy. By utilizing such the dispute. It was steadily developing from a system that knows no opposition, Suharto a simpler honest broker role into an active had the complete control of Indonesia’s bridge builder, and ultimately holds domestic and foreign policies. ASEAN’s leadership in preserving inter- During Suharto’s rule from 1968 regional peace and stability. until 1998, the foreign policy of Indonesia This article will discuss the issue in claimed the neutral posture of free and two consecutive sections: the New Order active principal inherited from the previous era and the Reform era. The following reign. In practice, Suharto’s foreign policy section discusses and analyzes Indonesia’s was stealthily sided with the western bloc response to the SCS dispute during the as an attempt to distance Indonesia from the Suharto era and how the archipelagic communist world and while gaining country conveyed its interests into policies financial and technical assistance from the to maintain the dispute. Next, it will discuss Western Bloc. New Order Indonesia’s 3 Journal of ASEAN Studies economy was engineered by the western- extraction facilities to mine the country’s centric economists, while the country’s abundant natural resources with notable defense assets were geared by arms few including Freeport-McMoran and imported from NATO countries. This Post- International Nickel Company (Pease, Sukarno Indonesia also foresaw the 1996). founding of ASEAN with Southeast Asian countries and the suspension of diplomatic To ensure the process going well as well as relations with communist China. to ensure Suharto’s regime enjoyed The SCS dispute was initially not of sustainable benefits from it, the new regime Indonesia’s concern since the focus of sought political stability. In fact, Suharto’s Suharto was building Indonesia’s economy leadership was well known for its high which was torn by inflation in the mid- regard for stability. His quest for 1960s, however at a certain point Indonesia Indonesia’s development required incessant decided to involve itself to the dispute as a political sustenance and social order, which response. in turn shaped Indonesia as an inward- In the beginning, Indonesia did not looking country for at least two-thirds of put much interest in international issues. New Order era. Suharto’s foremost concern Like most developing countries in the for the stability to support Indonesia’s world, the focus of Indonesia under Suharto development transformed Indonesia into a was to rebuild the country’s economy pseudo-democratic country where political which was collapsed under Sukarno’s aspirations were limited and dissents administration which suffered massive within the society were suppressed. During hyper-inflation (Panglaykim & Thomas, his three decades of rule, Suharto 1967). Since economic recovery was the successfully created and instilled a stable main focus of the country, Suharto set up political culture, whiles his legacy has his men to formulate and carry out shown as a prominent yet inspiring figure initiatives with the aim to recover for the leaders of neighboring countries, Indonesia’s economy. As a result, during namely Mahathir Mohammad of Malaysia the beginning of Suharto’s tenure and Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore (Woolcot, Indonesia’s foreign policy was aimed at 2008). achieving national economic recovery. New Order brought growth and Suharto’s plan to rebuild the economy was development to Indonesia, thus earned carried out with the reinvigoration of the Suharto’s famous nickname of ‚Indonesia’s gear of production by inviting investments Father of Development‛ in the 1980s. With and capitals to Indonesia. For such cause, Indonesia economy’s flourished, it became Suharto and his men began a tour with a inevitable that Indonesia had to expand its mission to promote and introducing new growth through International trade and investment law in Indonesia to countries investments to sustain its growing such as West Germany and Japan. The economy, especially when the world saw effort showed progress; in the initial phase the Oil Crash in 1980s. During that period, Indonesia successfully attracted foreign Suharto was trying to increase non-oil enterprises to establish production and exports to be more competitive since the 4 Indonesia’s Response in the South China Sea Disputes country saw a decrease of revenue in oil diplomatic relations did not happen until sales (Indonesia Oil – exports, 2013).
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