Facilitated by a largely unquestioning media, Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s government has become a master at the game of smoke and mirrors, which in its simplistic form is all about convincing the public that things are happening when they really aren’t.
The protracted negotiations with US mining giant Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold are a good example, but going back to the presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono the deceptive game-playing has covered everything from beef to natural resources to infrastructure.
While not new, the official obfuscation and embellishment of the truth has become more apparent as the 2019 legislative and presidential elections approach and Widodo and his palace spin doctors perceive the need to display his accomplishments.
Yudhoyono played this game back in mid-2011 when the Australian government suspended live cattle exports to Indonesia over animal welfare issues, and Jakarta decided some payback was in order by ordering a ban of its own.
Over the next two years, it slashed cattle imports by half and sought to convince consumers that the local industry could fill the gap when rising prices – and one of the lowest per capita beef consumption rates in Asia — clearly showed it could not.
Fast forward to the much-vaunted China-backed US$5.8 billion Jakarta-Bandung fast-rail project, once seen as the showcase of Widodo’s ambitious infrastructure program and now stalled over land acquisition issues that should have been foreseen.
Getting it started hasn’t been for the want of trying. Widodo attended a ground-breaking ceremony in January 2016, only to see Transport Minister Jonan Ignasius call a halt to the project five days later because of several “unresolved issues.”
Widodo and the Chinese weren’t amused. In July, the same month the construction permit for the project was finally issued, Ignasius — the former, highly successful chief executive of state-run railway Kareta Api — was unceremoniously sacked.
The president should have already learnt his lesson. In mid-2015, he had presided over the ground-breaking of the US$4 billion, Japan-funded Batang power station in Central Java, only to discover local farmers were still refusing to sell a key patch of land.
The courts finally resolved that one, but the railway still isn’t going anywhere despite the efforts of State Enterprise Minister Rini Soemarno, who showed up last July for yet another ground-breaking event – this one a tunnel.
It takes a lot to beat the whole Freeport saga, though, starting with last year’s framework agreement which was hailed at the time as a major victory for the Widodo government in forcing the company to agree to divest 51% of its shares in its local subsidiary.
Maybe so, but no-one seemed to notice that the devil was in the small print. In fact, the Indonesia media failed to point out at the time that the crucial questions of valuation and management control had yet to be settled.
Little surprise then that the negotiations continue, interspersed on frequent occasions with reassuring pronouncements by senior government officials that a final, final deal is just around the corner. It has been a long corner.
So far, there have been at least four government-imposed deadlines, all based on the extension of Freeport’s permit allowing it to continue exporting copper concentrate from its high-altitude Grasberg mine in Papua’s Central Highlands. The next one is in June.
Refusing the permit would clearly hurt the company’s profits, but it would also cut deeply into government revenues and, perhaps more importantly, lead to worker lay-offs that could spark unrest in the country’s already volatile Papua region.
In the latest show-and-tell, the government last week ceremonially signed a memorandum of understanding under which it will hand over 10% of the Freeport Indonesia shares it still needs to acquire to the Papua provincial administration.
The government spin machine has also recently turned to eastern Indonesia’s Marsela natural gas project, which for reasons even some senior Indonesian politicians can’t figure, Widodo wants to be developed on a remote, sparsely-inhabited island.
Joint venture partners Inpex and Shell have been dragging their feet, arguing that only an offshore facility makes sense, given the undersea terrain and a lack of existing infrastructure.
With the project seemingly in limbo, the government announced earlier this month that the partners were working on detailed plans for an onshore plant that would be finished by the end of this year. Tellingly, there was no word from either company.
“The officials are talking on behalf of the company, without the company knowing anything about it,” says one Indonesian oil veteran. “That’s politics, but for me as an industrialist it is very troubling.”
The French oil giant Total has maintained a similarly stoic silence since the state-run Pertamina oil company claimed the firm wanted back into the Mahakham gas field, which it had to leave when its contract expired last December.
In fact, with little money to maintain the Mahakham, it is the government that has been offering Total a slightly higher 39% participating interest to entice it to return as a partner in the field it ran for more than 40 years.
Widodo also adopted Yudhoyono’s cattle chicanery, part of an economic self-sufficiency program in which, with little planning and a lot of wishful thinking, Indonesia was hoping to produce all its own beef, rice, sugar, corn and soybeans.
In 2015, it was proudly announced that the proportion of beef imports to total consumption had dropped from 31% to 24%, without anyone noting that Indonesians were eating just 2.7 kilograms a year, the lowest per capita rate in the region.
A year later, that figure had shot back up again to 32% and last year it increased yet again to 41% with the price of beef at US$10 a kilogram and officials acknowledging the obvious: that Widodo’s five-year self-sufficiency target was now unattainable.
Again, that has a familiar ring to it. By importing rice, seen as almost a crime in some nationalistic quarters, past governments have often been forced to admit (if anyone is listening) that Indonesia’s supposed self-sufficiency in rice is nothing but a myth.
That would have former President Suharto, who did achieve rice self-sufficiency back in the early 1980s with careful planning and a slew of coordinated programs, rolling over in his grave.
Sooner or later, the smoke and the mirrors will inevitably lift to reveal hard realities.
Schillachi Bianco I suppose you know a lot about Indonesia? Oh I forgot that Morocco and Indonesia are close neighbours. Loughing out loud..
Abu Dzaki Alminangkabawi What are you talking about. My neighborhood were better then years before. There are no problem here.
Schillachi Bianco It’s not hard and I didn’t said that this articel is fully bias. However what i said are about the people who make a fun of the new president. For them maybe they hard to live know cause they have too much spend money on luxury items such are car, expensive phone, etc. Tax and price are gone up a little but that to make a transportation project such as road become better. At least for me this President is better then older presidents such as SBY and Megawati. Many of them hate this President cause their own carelessness to manage their income and some of the black campaign propaganda.
said a foreign author with no clear fact about the country he write.
what a joke
Buat Nkri: bigot’s logic spotted. Who made the rule that whoever don’t like jokowi is either corruptor or supporter of corruptr?? Use your eyes and brain dudes. Give an example like Setya novanto is jokowi’s ally, he supported ahok for jakarta election, and support jokowi for the next election…. Then who is the corruptor’s friend then?? LoL. Still haven’t mentioned another countless examples
I’m Indonesian the real Fact Jokowi Is Lier..
Nope for me thank
Mochammad Iqbal Novangga OMG, the most incredibly stupid bullshits, accomplished what??? in 100 days, more people bullied his work from the lowest level of people to the experts in their field – than praising him. What he accomplished look good on the outside whilst if you dig it deeper, the core problems are still there not diminished.. i.e Alexis, closed and changed name to 4play (why Anies allow such a brand name to be used?) and the prostitution is still there apparently, Tanah Abang, sounds like helping poor people but the reality, he created a place for the chief of premans earning more money by renting the tent 2-5 millions each, you count yourself how many of them.. and that is using the road owns by Jakartans who paid tax so he definitely shouldn’t do what he did. Do your homework right and place a right comment here
Schillachi Bianco well I do agree with Rara Zava, anything is a mess up to the former president SBY, looking at the mounting debt and Jokowi has to deal with the effect. Whatever thing if they don’t turn up as expected, at least he has done more good than harm for the people of Indonesia. If you grew up in Indonesia than you’ll know it is bloody hard to change the way of life there that is so corrupt, Jokowi is the first president trying to change this andin my eyes he is like a little Nemo tried to swim against the huge current plus fighting the big octopus, tried to avoid eaten by the greedy sharks etc. I think only a few people can manage the country when at the same time enemies kept on poking you from your right, left, back and front, even the top and bottom but Jokowi survives ok so far and I’m 100% behind him. If you notice any comment from anything related to islam, most of them have been brainwashed anyway by the radical moslem leaders. I’ve been to their youtube tvs, sometimes their social media, shocking cruel jokes, which was far from funny and the hatred their leader planted in the heart of their followers are just not the real moslem’s teaching, classified as radical but their main aim is to get the people to hate our president. Indonesia has abundant of great moslem preachers but the bad ones was chosen to help with the rotten politicans and they got rich so quick by regularly and continuously spreading the propagandas, it is like their main income they are able to build new buildings, buying expensive cars, have so many wifres, so u can lol and believe them, the real fight will start 2019 and I’m all behind the current president, Joko Widodo
The worst regime in the Indonesian history.
Salat sorry, but i don’t agree with the problem in Papua too. They’ve been living on their own since Soeharto, and almost no president do a thing from them, atleast those that get publiced enough. I have some friends from papua too, and he said that his village is indeed growing.
and you guys do know that the only reason you think the condition today is much worse than when we’re with sby and the likes was because the growing of internet right? Because now even the dumbest of people can access internet and send whatever the hell they want and claims it to be legit.
say what you want with smoke and mirror, but i do personally think he does better than other presidents before him in many ways.
But then again, it does not makes him a good president though. He’s just not ready yet for that kind of responsibility and control
This is for indonesian peoples.
Penulis article ini adalah JOHN MCBETH.
(1) Asia Time hanya platform bagi penulis dalam menulis. Yg benar pertanyaannya apakah John McBeth (JMB) sudah memaparkan data yg benar? JMB bilang Yudhoyono’s cattle chicanery terkait larang import sapi Aussie. Anda tahu arti chicanery? Tipu muslihat.
(2) kedaulatan RI dlm bidang dagang koq dibilang tipu muslihat. Dan anda tidak protes. Luar biasa.
(3) JMb bilang Presiden memaksa Freeport utk divestasi 51% saham Freeport. JMB jelas ngarang tanpa membaca Kontrak Karya Psl 24 ayat (2).
(4) Kontrak Karya Psl 24 ayat (2) jelas mencantumkan bahwa Freeport wajib divestasi 51% saham dalam waktu 20 tahun sejak 30 Des 1991.
(5) JMB bilang proyek pembangkit listrik Batang yg didanai Jepang sbg tipu muslihat (smoke and screen), karena issue pembebasan lahan. JMB nulis bhw issue lahan sudah teratasi oleh pengadilan. Tapi JMB tetap memasukkan proyek Batang sbg daftar tipu muslihat Jokowi.
(6) JMB bilang proyek Gas Mashala sbg tipuan. Proyek Mashala ada pros dan kons thd pilihan refinery onshore atau offshore. Pilihan ini tentu didasarkan atas feasibility study dan kepentingan bangsa Indonesia, krn kepentingan swasta/asing tdk sama persis dgn kepentingan bangsa.
(7) JMB bilang proyek Mahakam yg diambil alih Indonesia sbg tipu muslihat. proyek Mahakam berakhir sesuai kontrak, RI berhak memutuskan dikerjakan sendiri. Bhw proyek Mahakam belum berjalan dgn baik adalah masalah Management, bukan tipu muslihat.
(8) apakah JMB menulis dgn data atau ngarang? Anda jawab sendiri.
I’ve been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror
And bendin’ over backwards just to try to see it clearer
But my breath fogged up the glass
And so I drew a new face and I laughed …. – by jason mraz… cover by cebongers iq – 200 …:D
Ari Susanto then show us the proof dickhead. don’t just say "just see it yourself. the proofs is there, in front of your eyes." but show it to us where’s that the "chinese and communist" you are talking about?
like MCA A.K.A Muslim Cyber Army right?
Afifah R. Salma and you are not even an indonesian. so you better. comment your own country.
Muhamad Fajri and you eat shit for your food. am i hit the spot there?
I’m pretty sure John Mcbeth is american. sorry guys you can put your hands into our trades and economic like how it used to anymore. you american took enough from your puppet soeharto. this is a new era of Indonesia.
Rara Zava this one is called killing the messenger.. Not being able to provide data to argue with the message, you try to taint and attack Mr. Agus Nizami also without any data..
I and my entire family will never vote for jokowi nor anyone from his gangs.
And just like what novangga said, even if jokowi run against an empty box, I will still vote for the empty box.
#ABJ