Challenge to SBY’s soft power

Zaenal A. Budiyono, Jakarta | Wed, 05/25/2011

The 18th ASEAN Summit in Jakarta concluded with two significant results. First, the border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia found a new way toward a pre-solution. Second, the Myanmar regime’s openness to adopting democracy progressed.

The credit should go to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), as he had allocated a considerable amount of time to reconcile Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Previously, Myanmar President, U Thein Sein, successor of junta leader Than Shwe, also met President SBY to discuss democratization in Myanmar.

In this context, President SBY has tried to maximize Indonesia’s strategic position in ASEAN and in the world. Becoming the chair of ASEAN alone is not sufficient without also having vision and leadership.

President SBY appeared when ASEAN was faced with problems. He also did essential jobs for Indonesia’s role in G20 and in United Nations (UN) bodies, including the Human Rights Council — a position which previously would have been impossible for Indonesia under the New Order regime.

SBY also has a vision of world peace, with his proposal for a triple-track solution for the future of Iraq as an example. However, the President’s most popular vision was perhaps on Indonesia’s soft power diplomacy, which he presented before a UN forum and USINDO in 2007. He envisaged that many conflicts in the world could not reach peaceful solution as actors pursued solely hard power.

The struggles of the United States in bringing peace to Afghanistan and Iraq showed that the world community needs more than military power to create peace. In this regard, soft power focuses more on bringing peace through different approaches such as economy, culture, education, sports and media publication.

In this regard, President SBY invited his colleagues from Thailand and Cambodia to pursue a peaceful solution to the conflict. When this issue was discussed in the ASEAN Summit, the atmosphere in the meeting was slightly warmer, as such an issue was not included in the initial agenda.

PM Hun Sen was confident to push the issue to be discussed, while PM Abhisit was not in favor of it. Upon learning the situation, President SBY offered to mediate and invited the two leaders to the Presidential Palace.

In fact, the meeting at the Presidential Palace did not run so smoothly. Both the Thai and Cambodian leaders had different proposals for peace solutions, especially on how bilateral negotiations should be held and how international observers should be involved.

As we know, Cambodia preferred international observers to come to the disputed border area first and then be followed by a bilateral meeting between Thailand and Cambodia. On the other hand, Thailand preferred a bilateral approach first before involving international observers.

In this situation, President SBY mediated the deadlock and proposed that both approaches could be implemented at the same time. It seems that both disputing parties can accept the idea. After the meeting, the two leaders instructed their respective foreign ministers to stay in Jakarta to follow up with the initiative until progress can be made.

Before the Thailand-Cambodia meeting, President SBY met President U Thein Sein of Myanmar. Myanmar has been receiving criticism over its authoritarianism and alleged human right abuses there.

But Indonesia looks at Myanmar as member of an ASEAN family that needs support. Indonesia’s own experience under the New Order regime gave President SBY a sense of understanding of Myanmar’s situation. After intensive approaches from Indonesia, Thein Sein seemed to be more open to the importance of democracy for Myanmar.

Thein Sein said that Myanmar would take lessons from Indonesia’s experience in establishing full-fledged democracy. His visit to Indonesia was his first foreign trip since he was elected President of Myanmar.

Myanmar’s positive reaction to Indonesia’s approach raised many questions from other countries, especially on Myanmar’s democratic process. Myanmar previously rejected practically all democratic campaigns from the international community, including ASEAN.

As an example, former Malaysian Foreign Minister Syeik Hamid Albar, following the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur in 2005, announced that ASEAN had reached a new deal with Than Shwe regime. But suddenly the agreement was rejected by Than Shwe on the grounds that they were preparing to move Myanmar’s capital from Yangoon to Naypyidaw.

As a result, many ASEAN members did not seem to care for Myanmar’s democratization under Than Shwe. In several ASEAN meetings, only Indonesia reminded ASEAN to maintain support for Myanmar. Indonesia’s position is clear that Myanmar is an ASEAN family member.

If there is a family member that has a problem, others must help. If a member of the family is out of line, others should remind her. Although constantly refusing foreign intervention, the Myanmar delegation has always been present at ASEAN meetings. It shows that Myanmar has the good will to be involved in the ASEAN community.

Following the 18th ASEAN Summit, it is not impossible that Myanmar will adopt the roadmap to democracy. It is only through dialogue we can solve difficult stumbling issues. Soft power diplomacy shows again that tensions, conflicts and confrontations do not always require violence and military force to solve.

The writer is an assistant to the presidential special staff for publication.