THE MAN WHO’LL NEVER DYE WANTS CLOSER TIES

 

The civilian administrator, corruption fighter and sometime porn connoisseur who’s likely to be running the over-populated archipelago next door has some high ideals.

 

 He wants more young Indonesians to better understand their neighbour - and vice-versa.

 

But whatever Ganjar Pranowo thinks or enacts if he becomes the leader of the world’s third-largest democracy and biggest Muslim-majority nation after the 2024 February 14 election will change nothing if Australia doesn’t agree.

 

That’s because Canberra’s visa policy still discriminates, despite many pleadings, including from the present President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo.

 

He raised the issue directly to PM Anthony Albanese at their July meeting in Sydney. A concession was made - though only for business. Individual visitors still face a visa fee of $190 while Malaysians pay $20. Unsurprisingly Indonesians think this is grossly unfair as they have visa-free access to all nine ASEAN neighbours. 

 

Before he can campaign to get more of his citizens into Australia to learn about our lifestyle and culture, the present Governor of Central Java - whose second five-year term ends this September - needs to beat a seasoned educator and a disgraced former general in the race to the Jakarta Palace.

 

In a short roadside interview with no media minders or reporters from partisan TV stations present, Ganjar, 54, told Michael West Media that he’d visited Australia a ‘couple of times’.

 

He spoke while flexing for a five km daybreak dashabout with his wife Siti Atiqori Suryani, 51, (a marathoner) and a dozen business and political pavement-pounders, men and women.

 

He rejected suggestions that Indonesia and its leaders just mouth polite statements about their big neighbour to mask indifference, even distrust.

 

‘Australia is very important to Indonesia, very important. I want our young people to go to Australia and invite your students to come here and study, to know more.

 

‘I support greater sister city arrangements, like the one we have here in Semarang (the capital of the Central Java province) and Brisbane.

 

‘We want more business like the proposed electric vehicle battery deals that Jokowi has been discussing with your prime minister.’

 

However, some academics claim Ganjar’s real foreign affairs interests are with Beijing where he’s been a frequent visitor: ‘With these connections, the likelihood that Indonesia’s foreign policy remains wedded to the current approach, or perhaps becomes even closer to China, is strong.’

 

Ganjar (forename use is Indonesian style and doesn’t imply intimacy) is personable and speaks reasonable English. He invites locals he meets to ask questions, and did the same with this correspondent, but was guarded throughout.

 

Requests for a sit-down interview were knocked back firmly - ‘no time, impossible’, so no chance to ask about his views on democracy, which many believe is declining under Jokowi.

 

Ganjar’s articulate and more fluent wife Siti was unworried about expanding on her husband’s responses. (Jokowi’s wife Iriana is rarely heard.) 

 

Unlike the present First Lady, Siti wears a jilbab (headscarf) supposedly a sign of piety, which some assume means being unworldly. That would be a mistake.

 

When Ganjar was flummoxed by being asked to detail how he’ll get more youngsters heading Down Under, Siti (who’s a marathoner) ran to tell of a deal between the local Diponegoro University and Griffith Uni on the Gold Coast. 

 

The campuses will together research forced labour and climate change, and their impact on women and children.

 

Jokowi and Ganjar are in the ruling mildly-left populist Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle which has a majority (128 of 575) seats in the Legislative Assembly. Their boss is the Republic’s de-facto queen, Megawati, daughter of founding president Soekarno.

 

Nominations won’t close till 25 November but three heavyweights have been confirmed. The presidency is limited to two five-year terms, so Jokowi can’t stand.

 

Ganjar’s rivals are disgraced former general and Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto who wants to get the military more involved in civilian affairs, and academic Anies Baswedan, a previous Education Minister.

 

Polls put Ganjar first one week, then Prabowo the next; Anies is usually behind. They are unreliable because samples are small and city-based.

 

As in the US, the people directly elect the president. The VP candidates have yet to be announced, but this post usually goes to someone to appease the religious rather than be politically active.

 

Ganjar and Siti - the daughter and grand-daughter of  Islamic scholars - have both been on the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) so should avoid the charge that he’s not a ‘real’ Muslim.

 

That slur is often slung at Jokowi who seems more comfortable with ancient Javanese beliefs than the 13th-century Middle East import.

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 In Indonesian affairs there’s no separation of faith and politics, Candidates’ personalities, families and quirks carry more clout than policy. 

 

 Unlike most middle-aged portly politicians slim Ganjar doesn’t dye. So his grey hair has become his trade mark, enhanced by his dedication to fitness, cycling till he broke his arm in a tumble last year. 

 

Now he walks, seemingly minus bodyguards though well protected by his equally trim sidekicks, men and women. They end their exercise in a restaurant and then take public transport back to their big black SUVs. 

 

It’s all part of the blusukan (market walkabout) campaign tactic pioneered by Jokowi as a break from formality, and which delighted Malcolm Turnbull on a Jakarta visit as PM in 2015.

 

Such displays of commonality are now rare since an Islamic radical couple stabbed and wounded Security Minister Wiranto at a public event.  But Ganjar persists.

 

He’s also deft at handling controversy. In a 2019 podcast, he admitted to watching porn, an extraordinary comment in a morally uptight nation where the Ministry of Communications bans sex across all media forms - even sites like Tumblr and Vimeo.

 

He told an interviewer: ‘If I watch porn, what is wrong with that? I like it. I am an adult. I have a wife,’ Headlines reported ‘porn OK for married men’ but no response from wives. Ganjar played the story for laughs suggesting it was a publicity stunt to reach young men.

 

If so it could have gone down the toilet in a culture where most public figures hungry for fame denounce anything suggesting immorality.  That he survived suggests he understands prudes are often hypocrites and has a blacklist.

 

Ganjar has floundered, most seriously, by backing bans against the Israeli team in the under-20 soccer World Cup, which moved to the Argentine, costing Indonesia millions in lost revenue.

 

It’s been widely reported that Ganjar was ordered to object against the wishes of Jokowi by Megawati seeking to reinforce her late father’s support for Palestine and to placate the Muslim lobby. It certainly inflamed the nation’s footy fans - and that’s just about everyone.

 

Like Jokowi, Ganjar doesn’t come from an elite Javanese family, big business or the military that run Indonesia, but his upbringing was a few notches above the riverside slum where the present president was raised.

 

Ganjar is the fifth of six kids fathered by a village cop who had various postings, so the family had status. He studied law at Gadjah Mada University and worked for oil and gas companies before entering national politics and then elected Governor on an anti-corruption platform.

 

The sales pitch for his candidacy is that he’s Jokowi update and he’ll maintain present development policies which have lifted the incumbent to a 73 per cent approval rating.  

 

When asked if that continuity includes shifting the national capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan he said ‘of course’ which is a standard Javanese response to journos’ questions, and a useful ploy to avoid scrutiny. 

 

The $50 billion project needs overseas investors who are holding out till they see who’ll be the next president. Australian money has so far shown little interest

 

Ganjar was surprised when told of the Australian rite for incoming leaders to proclaim the importance of Indonesia. 

 

Tony Abbott’s 2013 speech asserting ‘more Jakarta, less Geneva’ has become a classic, but didn’t last.

 

The then president was former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a staunch Australophile until he learned Canberra’s clumsy spooks were tapping his phone and that of his wife Kristiani Herawati.

 

The outrage has dissipated but the insult exposed by US whistleblower Edward Snowden hasn’t been forgotten. Abbott refused to apologise. There are other sores in the relationship, Australia's role in the East Timor independence referendum, the Bali bombs, drug runner executions …

 

More will follow.  That’s been the pattern. Lowy Institute surveys have shown the ignorance and distrust,  Ganjar’s plea for closer ties is the right call, but will anything happen?

 

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First published in Michael West Media, 30 July 2023: https://michaelwest.com.au/ganjar-interview-indonesias-next-president-will-never-dye-but-wants-closer-ties-with-australia/

MEDIA STATEMENT FROM F.A.S.C.I.S.T Pty Ltd.

 MEDIA STATEMENT

Federated Australian Scriptural Christians In Secular Times

We now have firm evidence that the Holy Book was seized by global Satanic forces and mistranslated centuries ago, creating the foundation for the seven plagues now laying waste to our precious souls.

Our leaders have been searching the Aramaic texts for the algorithms that will reveal what He really meant.  They’ve already discovered that Jesus never said ‘blessed are the poor and meek’ but ‘blessed are the pure and mighty.’‘

The Voice is the latest plagiarism, suggesting that it’s a divine message shafting through the Resurrection clouds to transform society.  Yet everyone knows it was cobbled together by a mob of 666 pagans sitting in the dirt planning to hijack good government.

It  calls for ‘unity’ and ‘respect’; these are false ideas, for the Lord in His wisdom made us different for a purpose. He knew White is Right, so has shown us The Way through colour coding

As our founder / protector and former MP Craig Kally has often said:  ‘All photos of Jesus clearly show him as a Caucasian. They were taken long before digital manipulation was invented so we know these cannot be fake.’

We call upon all upstanding men to lift their hands high to stop the sky falling.

JOKOWI'S BROLLY TRIP TO OZ

He came, he saw, he wandered                

                               

A wet Sydney welcome                                                Credit Tribune

Forecasting outcomes from international leaders’ chats is a fraught exercise. Media hustlers offer topics and hint scoops. Flops get overlooked. And so it was with Indonesian President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo’s trip to Sydney earlier this month.

 

Before heading Down Under for a billed three-day visit (in reality just one full day) Jokowi briefed selected Australian journalists to steer the news agenda onto his road.

 

It was supposed to be an EV batteries mineral deal yielding billions in investments, plus extracting major concessions on discriminatory travel rules. Neither happened.

 

Former ambassador John McCarthy deflated some of the hype: ‘Truth be told, our relationship with Indonesia has become a mite boring. Never mind. In this business boring is good.’ 

 

Then he unscrewed the lid the media manipulators wanted locked by claiming that Indonesia will never be a ‘quasi-ally’ of Australia.

 

‘We need its heft (not ‘fence-sitting neutrality’) …to work with its fellow Southeast Asians to bring China and America back from the brink. This will involve more than engagement. It will involve activism. We need it as a strong pole in a multi-polar region.’

 

If such sturdy stuff was on the Sydney agenda it never surfaced.

Credit:  Detik News

Instead, the leaders’ business was so speedily dispatched Jokowi had time for more EV battery talk with Peter Dutton, a wet harbour police boat cruise and jolly pix with endangered Sumatran Tigers, ironically safer in Taronga Zoo than their natural environment. Their Bali and Java rellies have already been shot into history.  Literally.

 

As a brief break not bad. As a strategy spruik, not good, and few know because the hidden message was to appease Indonesia’s radical nationalists ready to inflame real or imagined Western plots in the upcoming election campaign as they’ve done before.  Hence this hose-down: 

 

‘We recognise the importance of Indonesia’s territorial integrity and your sovereignty as a nation. And we respect that, and we work with you on a range of issues covering the difficult geopolitical circumstances of our time.’ 

 

Decoded this means a couple of things:  First we’ll tell you more sometime about AUKUS nuclear-powered subs in your waters.  Second, we won’t back Papuan separatists like we supported your independence during the 1945-49 war against the colonial Dutch.

 

Having deplaned on possibly his last visit as president (he steps down in October 2024 after an election in February) Jokowi stayed media shy, doubtless fearing questions about human rights abuses, persecution of gays and a retreating democracy. Or maybe the World Trade Organisation.

 

The joint leaders’ list of must-dos ‘reaffirmed the importance of the multilateral trading system, with the WTO at its core … focused on improving WTO functions and having a fully functioning dispute settlement mechanism by 2024.’

 

This is gold-standard hypocrisy because Indonesia is giving two fingers to the WTO by stopping many critical mineral exports. 

 

Late last year the global authority ruled the bans violated its tariffs and trade agreement. But Indonesia refused to restart its port bulk loaders, arguing it needs the ores to stay in the archipelago and be processed.

 

The Asia Times reported Economic Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto saying developed countries controlling other nations' exports was a ‘form of modern-day colonialism that will inhibit Indonesia’s economic growth and development.’

 

‘Down-stream processing’ has been an unhatched egg in Australia for so long it has addled as we continue to ship cheap iron ore to China and import its costly steel products. Jakarta has watched our inability to change this system so is taking action by building Chinese-funded smelters.

 

It has more nickel than any other country and more than it can currently use.  The European Union wants raw ore for stainless steel and EV batteries, so complained to the WTO.

 

The EU won but Indonesia’s response was: We’ll appeal and keep doing things our way. According to Reuters Jokowi said: ‘We want to be a developed country, we want to create jobs. If we are scared of being sued, and we step back, we will not be a developed country.’

 

That’s a road Canberra won’t explore because we think we’re sticklers for international rules and use the WTO to clobber countries like China that has banned our wines and barley ostensibly for political reasons.

 

The meeting also celebrated the third anniversary of the Indonesia -Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.  Proof that the free trade deal has yet to live up to expectations comes with the Foreign Ministers being told to ‘renew the plan of action’.

 

The IA-CEPA includes quotas on work and holiday visas, eventually allowing entry for 5,000 Indonesians a year.  This unused clause waits for another meeting - whoever that may be from Indonesia - and preferably with more time.

 

As he wanted, Jokowi’s plans to sell EVs to the neighbours and get WA lithium topped the talking points. While a presidential tick helps, in the end, any deals will be done by investors who’ll decide whether trade makes business sense.

 

Australian bankers reckon the risks too great to invest in Jokowi’s Nusantara new city signature project in East Kalimantan which is already looking parched for want of dollars. Who’ll put money into a show where the state is corrupt, returns hard to detect, and worries whether the cheerleader’s successor will be waving Widodo’s flags?

 

Having given much space to pre-visit predictions, the AFR discovered a ‘strongly-worded communique’ driven by ‘international tough-mindedness’, language invisible to other readers. 

 

The 40-point document was thick with soft synonyms suggesting the leaders’ teams  ‘welcomed, recognised’ and ‘underlined’ ideas, but blandishments are decorations, not enforceable treaties. 

 

 As Ross Taylor, former president of the Perth-based Indonesia Institute and a persistent advocate for fairer and cheaper entry permits for Indonesians, claimed there’s a ‘huge market’ wanting to enjoy the Wide Brown but finding the process discriminatory and onerous:

 

Why not treat Indonesians like we handle Malaysians and Singaporeans who get cheap online visas?  Because - as Lowy research shows - we don’t trust ‘em, and it’ll take real tiger talk to start a change.

 

 John McCarthy should be at the next leaders’ love-in.

  

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 First published in Michael West Media, 17 July 2023:  https://michaelwest.com.au/unpacking-the-presidents-mien-just-how-successful-was-jokowis-visit-to-australia/

TOO MUCH PREPARATION IS NEVER ENOUGH

 WHAT YOU HEAR MAY NOT BE WHAT THEY SAY     

A Bill-free meeting 

I can’t tell you Bill’s real  name, but can authenticate he was a hIgh-level Australian executive sent to Indonesia to build contacts that might lead to business. We shared a coffee.  Then another. He continually checked his phone.

In 2021 Indonesia launched a sovereign wealth fund – the Indonesia Investment Authority. The pitch claimed foreigners could make money but the intent was to get funds into state-owned enterprises.

These include banks and fuel stations, power and water supplies, makers of guns and drugs and scores of other enterprises.  Many are monopolies and not always run efficiently.

Bill’s Board had been impressed by President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo  telling the world his nation was hungry for investment and taking unpalatable bureaucratic condiments off the menu.

So Bill had sent all the right intro letters followed by e-mails and phone calls and was waiting in a Jakarta five-star for the promised responses.

They never came and he quit the capital after exhausting his  travel budget wondering what he’d done wrong.

The chances are that the service he was offering didn’t attract the people he’d contacted, particularly if middle management.  If they hadn’t been told to respond they’d fear getting involved in an unapproved venture.

Indonesian administration is top-down.  Jump here for a guide to management styles.

Elsewhere a polite rejection letter is common, but the Javanese think this  impolite so prefer to ignore. Indonesians also use WhatsApp rather than e-mail or phone.  Facebook is declining as a business tool.

Bill’s real fault was not understanding the Javanese subtleties; there’s no easy guidebook, but these comments might help.

Indonesia is the world’s third largest democracy, but it’s a mistake to believe it works like those in the Anglosphere.  It’s a  ‘flawed democracy’ according to the Economist Intelligence Unit; nations in this grouping fail on measures of pluralism, civil liberties, press freedom and political culture.

Many Westerners assume that when the President makes a statement it carries the weight of one delivered by his equivalent in the US or UK.

If only. In 2021 Australia announced it was cooperating with those two nations to sail nuclear-powered submarines in waters around Indonesia in a strategy called AUKUS.

 Jakarta officially stressed it was ‘deeply concerned over the continuing arms race and power projection in the region’.  The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Jokowi ‘repeatedly and forcefully’ raised concerns with the then Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

 

Then in May this year the New Straits Times ran an interview with Jokowi saying ‘we should view … AUKUS as partners, and not competitors.’

 

Some media assumed Indonesia was shifting its position  but Susannah Patton, from Australia’s  Lowy Institute warned against reading too much into the President’s comments  telling the Australian Financial Review: 

 

‘Jokowi has form in saying very positive things that don’t necessarily reflect Indonesia’s official position’.

 

So before buying Bill’s business class ticket his bosses should have  thoroughly researched the President’s comments on overseas investment.  

 

Why were they made?  Maybe to spur local corporates to open their wallets through the threat of foreign competition rather than open the doors to dollars and yuan.   

 

Indonesians are nationalistic and many resent outside influence (‘soft power’)  they think comes with investment. Jakarta might tick a proposal but the overseas company finds its plan frustrated by regional administrations.

 

Some Chinese companies have brought in their own workers causing resentment among locals expecting jobs.  A good discussion on how Beijing does business abroad is here.

 

Indonesian leaders must use Indonesian when making official statements so it’s best to read the original and get a reliable translation rather than use the words published in the Western media.

 

Indonesian is not Jokowi’s first language - that’s Javanese, a complex hierarchical tongue adroitly employed by the president.

 

It’s rarely used outside the island which dominates the archipelago politically and economically, so misinterpretations are commonplace. For those serious about Indonesia one of the best guides to improve understanding is here.  

 

Many readers would know the old cliche that an Indonesian’s ‘yes’ means ‘no’, and a ‘no’ means maybe. When  Australian journalists once asked Jokowi if  their nation might join the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations he apparently responded:  ‘I think it’s a good idea’

 

This led  to reports that an expansion of the ten-member group was possible, but those knowledgeable of the nuances laughed.  Wrote one academic:

 

‘Australia has not been invited to join ASEAN, and will not be invited to join ASEAN in our lifetimes. Jokowi was offering a ‘Javanese response,’ trying to be polite.’

 

Bill’s company might have done better in hiring an agent to advise on who to see and what to say.  Most embassies in Jakarta have business units able to recommend reliable resources, though it’s wise to double-check officers’ skills and experience.  

 

Are they academic theorists who’ve never been outside the public service, or do they have dirt under their fingernails?

 

In brief:  Examine every angle, talk to all sides and take your time.  Indonesians don’t like to be hustled.  Who does?

 

When you eventually find the right folk work hard to maintain contacts.  Remember birthdays and national events.

 

Do your homework.  Too much information is never enough.

Duncan Graham is the author of Doing Business Next Door (Wordstars)

First published in Indonesia Expat, July 2023: http://online.fliphtml5.com/qinqh/ebee/#p=20

 

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