*This article was published in the Trending Events periodical, issued by Future for Advanced Research & Studies - Issue 8, Mar 2015.
The newly elected Indonesian president Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has proposed an ambitious vision named World Maritime Axis, which integrates the Indonesian economic development, defense and foreign policy strategies.
The nation of “a thousand islands” in fact has more than 17,000 islands with territorial water consisting nearly 70% of its territory. The country is endowed with rich resources in the sea. The combined revenue of exploitable marine resources, including fishing, gas and oil, renewable energy, and tourism, can reach 1,200 million USD per year, however, the resources having been exploited constitute less than 10% of the potential.
The strategic maritime location and the broad geographical coverage of sea yet present a “blessing and curse” to the country. Sitting on the edge of the Malacca Straits, the sea-lane connecting the Indian Ocean and Pacific does not only play a crucial role on its international and domestic trade, but also places onerous responsibility on the nation’s inadequate maritime defense power and tight governmental budget to protect one of the world’s busiest straits together with Singapore and Malaysia. The cost and effort that Indonesian government put in securing the straits, nevertheless, is negligible compared to those needed for patrolling its entire water territory, tracking illegal fishing and conducting rescue tasks on the sea.
The Sea Has Been Forgotten For Long
The sea is the lifeline of Indonesia. Despite the glorious maritime history of the ancient kingdoms Sriwijaya and Majapahit, the fact is not immediately apparent to its former leaders since the establishment of Republic of Indonesia in 1945. During the Old Order (“Orla”), bedeviled with the domestic separatism and the hard battles against Dutch, the first president Soekarno hoped to cultivate “the spirit of general on the sea”(jiwa cakrapatih samudra) in his navy, but it did not go any further than on the conceptual level.
In the New Order (“Orba”), the second president Soeharto, who was born in a peasant family in central Java and later joined the army, gained legitimacy for his regime by developing the agriculture sector and securing the food supply, and strengthened his political power by aligning himself with the land force. There was no doubt that he prioritized economy and politics on land rather than on the sea.
During the period of Reformation (“Reformasi” ), which was characterized by the falling of Soeharto and the following democratization process between 1998 and 2004, the three presidents Habibie, Wahid and Megawati were all trapped in troubled water of domestic politics. None of them was given a chance to be seriously engaged in implementing a development plan, let alone a holistic maritime strategy. Unfortunately, given ten years in office, President Susilo neither showed particular interest in maritime issues. He haphazardly settled the EEZ dispute with the Philippines just before leaving his office, and made some effort to modernize the navy, but the incremental change did not lead to a qualitative transformation of the mindset in the Indonesian grand development blueprint.
Five Pillars in the Vision of World Maritime Axis
Similar to Soeharto, Jokowi, who was also born in a poor family in central Java but gained abundant experience abroad in his 19-year career as a furniture exporter, embraced a more cosmopolitan view of Indonesia and its strategic role in the world.
Jokowi first came up with the idea of upholding Indonesia as an archipelagic state in the platform Vision and Mission prepared for his presidential election campaign in May 2014. On June 22 last year, in the presidential election debate, he elaborated the idea that Indonesia will aim to become the World Maritime Axis under his leadership. After Jokowi won the election, he reaffirmed his maritime vision in the speech where he claimed his electoral victory in July and in the following inauguration speech in the parliament in October 2014. A more detailed version of his strategy was elaborated in the ASEAN Summit in Myanmar on November 13, 2014, where he developed his concept of the World Maritime Axis (“Poros Maritim Dunia”) and broke it down to five pillars.
1. Revitalize the maritime culture
The maritime culture is considered as the mindset that encourages creativity, innovation, exploration and courage. The traditional maritime ethnicities in Indonesia, such as Malay, Madura and Bugis, are exemplars of such character, which is in stark contrast to the Javanese character featuring inward-looking, family, ritual, agriculture and risk-averse.
Jokowi proposes that the Indonesian society should go for a mindset revolution that penetrates into everyday behavior, staring from consuming more fish to supplement staples. His rational stands that if the sea exerts more influence on people’s daily life, people will become more sensitive to maritime issues such as illegal fishing and sea pollution, and will push the government for stricter law enforcement. The academia and technology sectors have already launched projects on the studies of maritime technologies and humanities with France and Holland. Programs aiming to level up education and professional expertise among fishermen also have begun, including another cooperation program with Holland
2. Manage and develop maritime resources
Managing and developing maritime resources is the core propeller to realize the goal aiming to write down Indonesia’s name on the sheet of developed countries by 2025. Jokowi has vigorously reformed the bureaucratic structure, pushed for legislation and prepared to forge cooperation with local governments.
He reinstated the cabinet post of Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs overseeing four ministries, namely Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Transportation, Tourism, and Energy and Mineral Resources. He assigned the Minster of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries post to a successful, reform-minded businesswoman Susi Pudjiastuti, who proved herself competent by cracking down on illegal fishing and sinking more than 30 foreign illegal fishing vessels during the past few months. She also set a ban on fishing within 4 nautical miles from the coastline. Her aggressive policy made Vietnam, Malaysia and other neighboring countries upset but was warmly welcomed in the domestic society.
Last year, the first Law of the Sea of Indonesia was passed by the parliament, after more than a decade’s legal processing against all odds, just in time to give legal basis for Jokowi’s World Maritime Axis strategy. The parliament is pushing for more laws and regulations to coordinate with Jokowi’s implementation of the maritime blueprint. One of the laws under discussion is relevant to the management of maritime resources in the open sea.
In the decentralized Indonesia, the vital player of managing and developing maritime resources is not the cabinet but more than 500 local district government. Jokowi has taken initial move to synchronize the implementation of maritime resource management among 102 district heads of Java and Maluku islands. The issues covered include inter-connectivity between islands, illegal fishing and fishermen protection.
3. Develop maritime infrastructure
Major islands, such as Maluku and North Maluku, are still in a status of relative isolation, both in terms of geography, economy and division of labor, vis-à-vis Java and Sumatra, due to the lack of transportation infrastructure. Thus, the initial goal of developing maritime infrastructure is to develop inter-island connectivity in the Indonesian territory, including sea toll road, deep-sea port and shipping routes. In the coming five years, Indonesia will build 24 new ports and deep-sea ports, and expand the capacity of existing ports.
The biggest problem is that the government needs huge investment to support this plan. Coincidentally, Jokowi’s plan fits well with China’s "belt and road" initiative proposed in 2013, of which the road refers to the 21st century maritime Silk Road. This idea was first presented by the Chinese President Xi Jinping in a speech to Indonesia’s parliament in October 2013. In addition, China has established the so-called “Asian World Bank”, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) with 21 Asian countries signing the bill. China and Indonesia’s cooperation in building maritime infrastructure seems inevitable and impending. However, China will not be the only sponsor. Jokowi has also pleaded to Japan, a long-time crucial investor and stakeholder in Indonesia, for investment and received positive response.
4. Deepen maritime diplomacy
Drawing upon recent diplomatic activities of Jakarta, there are two priorities in maritime diplomacy for Jokowi’s administration: settling borders on the sea and playing a more important role in addressing the South China Sea Dispute. By far, Indonesia has not yet settled borders with the following countries:
- Territorial sea: Malaysia, Philippines and East Timor
- Contiguous zone: Indonesia has not signed agreement with any country.
- Exclusive Economic Zone: India, Thailand, Malaysia, Palau and Vietnam
- Continental shelf: Philippines
In February 2015, Jokowi has restarted diplomatic negotiation with Malaysia over the border of territorial sea. Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur have agreed to appoint special envoy to “hold exploratory talks”. Some measures showing more genuine sincerity remain to be observed. In the same vein, Jokowi proposed to settle the border of continental shelf with Philippines in February 2015. It can be a hard battle: consider the fact that the two countries spent two decades only to settle the border of EEZ in May last year. Although Jokowi took active initiative to settle the border disputes with neighboring countries, it is not immediately followed by substantial negotiations of any kind, which raises suspicion of how firm his intention is, and whether he in fact seeks to rebut the previous comments from his oppositions, criticizing that he has no diplomatic experience or skills.
On the South China Sea issue, Jokowi has expressed his intention several times to become “an honest broker” between China and ASEAN. This proposal is quite reasonable, because 1) Indonesia is often considered as the informal leader in ASEAN; 2) Indonesia does not claim for any disputed territory in South China Sea, although Indonesia and China has unsettled EEZ near the Natuna islands; 3) Indonesia remains neutral in most of the international affairs and is an unaligned country. Jokowi’s stance on the South China Sea Dispute does not show obvious difference with his predecessor, who urged that all the stakeholders should conduct the DOC, and progress on a COC in the near future. China has not officially commented on Jokowi’s proposal but apparently China does not oppose the idea. In addition, there has been ever increasing discussions of Indonesia’s role in the South China Sea Disputes among Chinese think tanks and academia in recent years. Indonesia is going to play a bigger part in it for sure.
5. Upgrade maritime defense capacity
Indonesia’s defense budget has been on the bottom in ASEAN countries for decades despite it is the most populated and the largest country in Southeast Asia. Navy may be the least competent army in Indonesia due to over three decades’ ignorance under Soeharto’s regime. In 2004 when the deadliest tsunami hit Sumatera, US and Australia dispatched aircraft carriers and other vessels to rescue refugees, while Indonesian navy was sidelined. In 2014, four UAV were found fallen in the Indonesian territory without earlier notice from any domestic agencies, which means that Indonesian ISR is still in very under-developed condition.
Jokowi has announced to increase the defense budget to 1.5% of GDP but later added a precondition “if GDP growth could reach 7%”, which indicates that there is considerable opposition to increase defense budget in the parliament. During the election campaign in May last year, Jokowi proclaimed that he was determined to make the Indonesian navy a respectable navy in East Asia. Later he also proposed a plan to develop an integrated three-dimensional defense system. All the promises await more concrete implementation in the future.
Implications for the Middle East
The Middle East is an increasingly important market for Indonesia. Being the country home to the biggest Muslim population, Indonesia knows that it has its unique edge on fostering tourism, trade and service sectors with the Middle East. The tourism sector has taken first steps to explore the Middle East market. In 2013, only 190,000 Middle Eastern travelers came to Indonesia. Indonesia is making efforts to appeal to more Middle Eastern visitors, e.g. building chain sharia hotels and planning exclusive Muslim travel package.
Other sectors also present promising opportunities for trade and investment between Indonesia and the Middle East. In 2014, Indonesia has passed the law No. 33 on halal product. More halal food and pharmaceutical products are expected to be produced in the coming years. In Asia, while only Malaysia and East Timor may become major potential markets, Indonesia must seek to explore the Middle Eastern markets to expand its exportation. This prospect hinges upon the development of maritime infrastructure to facilitate the transportation of products and lower the cost of exportation.
Marching towards the Middle East is not just for boosting GDP growth, but also contributes to diversify the national “portfolio” for security concerns. Recently, Australia threatened to ban Australian tourists from travelling to Indonesia because Jokowi administration put two Australians on death row for drug trafficking. Due to the fierce opposition from Australia, Indonesia felt threatened and agreed to postpone the execution.
The ban on tourism may not be the sole reason to explain Indonesia’s bending, but economic dependency, GDP growth and the effect of audience democracy inevitably enter the calculation of Jakarta. That is why Jakarta feels the imperative to look beyond Southeast Asia, East Asia and Pacific, and look west to the Indian Ocean and the Middle East.
