Suharto strategic diplomacy in the Southeast Asian region

The paper gives evidential accreditation about how the polices that were developed formed a stronger bond with the countries aligned in the south East Asia. Indonesia’s relations with these countries developed tremendously and the cooperation grew beyond the borders of south East Asia. The collaboration is said to take shape in military alliances, materials, economic development and social formations that provided for a good working relations. The relations of Indonesia with Malaysia as well as Singapore in the late 60’s to 80’s is characterized as one which is unique in that it had mistrust and antipathy. There was great discontent at first between Indonesian and Singapore due to the dominant resentment of the Chinese who controlled much of trade within and without Indonesian.

Malaysian and Indonesian interaction dates back many centuries by virtue of their religion and trade interactions2. The sense of sameness brings out the significance of the perceptions and expectations of togetherness that the two countries have should be associated as one. They have many things in common, for instance they share cultural similarities as well as ethnic background and the countries are geographically positioned as neighbors as they share the same sea and land boundaries. Much of the confrontation of the militants of Indonesian and the support military from other countries inclined to Malaysia took part along the border of the two countries but Singapore was at the receiving end of many of the bomb attacks that were launched by saboteurs from Indonesia3.

This defines why the formation of Malaysia and the support they got from the UN alignment caused so much tension that the Indonesian leader decided to wage war on their economy. Confrontation continuous to be used up to today to display the tactical marrying with political intent, but the question to ask is if those undertaking the Borneo confrontation viewed it the same way. Referencing from documents released by the Borneo headquarters on the confrontation we revisit the tactical aspects during the confrontation. The perspective drawn by this paper is that the political gain at Borneo at that time was of the view that it favored the Indonesians. It underpins the end strategy which Indonesians had used did not mean they suffered defeat for it but achieved its goals from the war through its adaptation of the new ways.

Therefore though the tactics employed by the British worked, but only when observed in a hindsight benefit perspective. The relationship of Indonesia and Malaysian military strengthened to a point of being referred to as defector alliance. The liaison amongst the two military groups became great role in providing inter-government relations and communication between Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur that led to official termination on the confrontation. Another gesture that continued to strengthen the two countries bilateral ties was the agreement to work on a regional order. This was through the formation of institutionalized cooperation of the region which had been stained during the Sukarno era. This kind of differences surfaced during the regional cooperation agenda between Tun Abdul Razak and Adam Malik at the Bangkok accord in 19668.

The story of Indonesia foreign policy of late takes the concept which came to take shape during the Muchtar Kusumaatmadja was the foreign minister of Indonesia since 1978 up to 1988 and still continued to exist until the closing stages of the newly adopted order. The new Oder was different for the Sukarnos policy of trying to place Indonesia in a leading role amongst her peers in the new front of confronting imperialism and colonialism. President Suharto sure to pursue a different foreign policy which was focused on security needs economic stability and development. Indonesia’s policies on foreign actions would be shaped by such circles as the proximity in terms of geographical settings with the inner countries forming the ASEAN, The second consideration was the neighboring countries in the front of East Asia while the last circle was formed of the larger Asia continent and pacific section with countries farer not being given much consideration.

Therefore the pacific front and Asia was the areas of focus in the foreign policy of Indonesia. Indonesia inherited solid sense of idealism as well as a missionary outlook from times of Sukarno which sought to manage when not able to transform the strategic environment, focusing on self-confidence even at times when it lacks the means to execute its policies successfully. Since then the regional policy of Indonesia has deviated from the confrontation policy of Sukarno and adopted a different and more regional friendly policy that embraces its neighbours to form a regional block of unity and economic development12. However the spirit to position and maintain values that establishes Indonesia and the countries of the east Asia in an autonomy state where they can be their own masters rather than just followers of the powerful states.

Through the formation of ASEAN and by their own accord of unity with the regions countries, Indonesia has tried look for a bigger playing role in shaping the regions perspective at least around the inner circles of the South East Asia. Suharto and Lee Kuan Yeuw: intimate relations (1967-1980) Suharto was elected president in 1967 first as an acting capacity and then as full president in 1968 by the parliament. The fondest memory of this external support was evident in 1986 when the Singaporean prime minister defended the regime of Suharto on the practice of nepotism and corruption in its policies as revealed by the Sydney morning report Positive relations continued to grow between Singapore and Indonesia as Lee’s confidence on Suharto grew day by day.

This kind of positivity grew because Suharto was trustworthy in his dealings with Singapore. This was demonstrated in their first ever deleing were Suharto asked for help from Singapore of 10000 tons of rice for an emergency as rice had failed in his country14. He gave his word of repaying kind at an agreed time. Though rice prices in the market changed to a higher margin Indonesia repaid back the debt as scheduled with a better quality of rice than they had received. Previous objections from Suharto in the first ASEAN proposals meant their failure but his support on the fourth ASEAN trade proposal in 1992 saw the formation of the ASEAN free trade which got established within a spell of fifteen years16.

On the other hand Suharto regarded Lee as a liberal friend who spoke his mind and whose judgment could be depended upon. Due to the profound support of Suharto and guidance towards his officials, projects like the Bintan, the agreement on Riu Water, the air combat and the beach international resort went on smoothly. The stand of Singapore in support of Indonesian was again show during the Singapore –Riau cooperation signing in 1990 agreement. Continued good relations and close coordination between Singapore and Indonesians forces went on despite the criticisms by international countries stating harsh practices which made the two countries receive embargos was a another mode in which Singapore shown its support to Suharto’s regime. Undeniably, considering the long contentious record of the two major players in the world of indo-Malay, it is right to back the conclusion of realism.

Conclusion Having established a stable dynasty in terms of politics by 1980s, President Suharto was focused to maintain the role of Indonesia in the international front. He propelled the leadership role of Indonesia for ASEAN which is the economic and political alliance of the region which was formed with the help of Indonesia in 1967. Suharto continued promoting normalization relations across international border as seen with Cambodia and china in 1980 and 1990s. It can be noted that in 1992 there was a nonaligned force for countries that were not initially associated with any other super power. This can be witnessed in the diplomatic maneuvers of the two countries as their foreign polices still have sensitive aspects. As growing nations, the two countries see the need to have a wider reach to international forum and for this reason each of them present some concealment in their international maneuvers as each want to lead certain fronts.

For example Indonesia has tried to present it interest in getting the leadership of the nonaligned movement through nominating itself the organizing center of the Summit conference. Malaysia has shown the same spirit by trying to be the leading voice in the south-south dialogue. Malaysia and Indonesia foreign relations can be referred to as a family relationship commonality. Barry, Desker and Ang Cheng Guan, eds.  Perspectives on the Security of Singapore: The First 50 Years. World Scientific, 2015. Boyce, Peter John, ed.  Malaysia and Singapore in international diplomacy: Documents and commentaries. Strong genetic population structure in the boring giant clam, Tridacna crocea, across the Indo‐Malay Archipelago: implications related to evolutionary processes and connectivity.  Molecular Ecology, 2008, pp 3775-3787. Liow, Joseph Chinyong.  The politics of Indonesia-Malaysia relations: one kin, two nations.