Globalization: A challenges to RI diplomacy

By Jusuf Wanandi

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's foreign policy has always been based on national interest and other objectives, namely to take part in common efforts to establish a world order based on freedom, peace and social justice.

Indonesian diplomacy pursues an active and independent policy -- active in helping build a world order and independent of any political blocs or great powers.

Through diplomacy based on these principles, Indonesia achieved its own independence in 1945, hosted the Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung in 1955, was party to the foundation of ASEAN, active in the APEC and ARF processes, IOC, Non-Aligned Movement and in the UN.

Indonesia has helped lead the developing world in achieving democracy and social justice, emphasized new plans of action and priorities for the Non-Aligned Movement and participated in changing the priorities, programs and structure of the UN.

To create a strategic environment of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, Indonesia and other ASEAN countries have helped establish the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

APEC is important to promoting economic cooperation and opening up the dynamic Asia-Pacific region, while the ARF is important for maintaining peace and stability in the region.

Indonesia played a key role in seeking a solution to the Cambodian conflict and joined international efforts to allay nuclear conflagration in the Korean Peninsula. Indonesia's preventive diplomacy continues to help settle disputes in the South China Sea as well.

In the last 50 years, Indonesian diplomacy has led to a greater role in international affairs and a realization of the values embodied in the 1945 Constitution.

In the longer term, Indonesian foreign policy and diplomacy will face more complicated challenges. Indonesia must be able to define major issues and policies to help shape a new world order, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.

There are at least five discernible challenges. The first is the intricate linkage between domestic developments and foreign affairs, which has largely come about through a globalized economy, technology, communication and transportation. State sovereignty has been limited by the emergence of international and regional organizations as well as society's smaller groups.

While the state may still be powerful, minority groups and individuals are also subject to international law, with NGOs also playing an important role.

This brings a new challenge to Indonesian foreign policy concerning the rights of others to intervene in domestic affairs, an issue that has not been comprehensively defined in international law. As for human rights, the democratization process and the rights of minorities, pressures will mount.

A society as pluralistic as Indonesia faces a tremendous task in maintaining national unity, while at the same time having to care for human and minority rights. Eventually, good governance and a civil society will be the right answer.

The second challenge is how to balance and relate Indonesia's national, sub-regional (ASEAN), regional (Asia-Pacific) and global interests in the future. National interests may be congruent with regional or global ones, but they may also be in conflict.

In the future, should Indonesia follow its national interests and policies or subordinate them to a common sub-regional (ASEAN) mechanism?

These questions will become more legitimate if and when ASEAN- 10 becomes a stronger sub-regional institution with a certain 'confederation' type of intensity. Making decisions in APEC is already becoming a problem as the question is whether to do so individually or together through ASEAN.

One obvious benefit of going through ASEAN is to make the position a lot stronger. Hence, educating and giving the right information to the Indonesian public is of paramount importance.

The government and socio-political leaders will have to explain why sometimes Indonesia's national interests in the longer term will be better served through ASEAN than through individual efforts.

A possible way to overcome this dichotomy is for Indonesia to exert greater leadership in ASEAN since it has become one of the cornerstones of its foreign policy.

Indonesia has gained trust from its immediate neighbors and indeed many of its diplomatic objectives can be better achieved.

The third challenge is how Indonesia plays a role in the creation of a regional order in the Asia-Pacific, the strategic environment for Indonesia. The region is at a critical juncture and must either create a cooperative region without hegemony of any great power or face an era of conflict and confrontation driven by the hegemonic ambition of a great power in the region.

Here the APEC-PECC and ARF-CSCAP cooperations, which represent government/NGOs or first and second track joint-efforts, can serve as building blocs to achieve an ideal regional order in the Asia-Pacific.

The fourth challenge is how to help create an international order which is more democratic and paired with social justice as stated in the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution.

Here Indonesia's role in such international forums as the IOC, NAM and the UN is vital and should be augmented in the years to come.

The fifth challenge is for Indonesia to lay down all the necessary bases at the national level to be able to achieve these diplomatic objectives.

The following steps must be taken: Indonesia must prepare the Indonesian public for the emerging challenges to gain their support; "total diplomacy" must be established to allow leaders from all walks of life to contribute; the bureaucracy must become well versed in the political, economic and cultural aspects of our diplomacy; well-rounded national development must be formulated to balance robust economic growth with the creation of a good governance and civil society.

These measures will ensure greater acceptance of Indonesia's role in the region and the world at large. The challenges facing Indonesian diplomacy are not easy or simple. However, we overcame them during the revolution and in the process of nation building, so it should not be impossible to do it again in the future.

The writer is chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.