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.
there is more smoke here, In my town, there are planing to build a domestic airport, the "party called as ground-breaking" has been held. mr president came, there are some truck, some excavator, and many more at that "party". the truck and etc move out after party, and as we know that truck not yet came again, that airport project never realize until now. after 3 or 4 mounth, I know that the airport project is not yet have a DED (Detailed Engineering Design), even the DED is not yet ready…. so its mean, the ground-breaking it just a party..
I am Indonesian, this article is exactly what the opposition says, but 70% of Indonesians are satisfied with the performance of Jokowidodo, and the contents of this article are contrary to the conclusions of world leaders. Ask Indonesian people before making a justification to our leader.
I am Indonesian, this article is exactly what the opposition says, but 70% of Indonesians are satisfied with the performance of Jokowidodo, and the contents of this article are contrary to the conclusions of world leaders. Ask Indonesian people before making a justification to our leader.
100% true
Indonesia today is like a person who is sick of complications and is now undergoing a period of treatment, must take a bitter medicine. that’s what we feel, in this world there is no medicine that tastes good.
Jokowi inherited nearly 2700T of debt, every year without having to borrow again the government must pay interest and the principal almost 365T, try multiply now been running 4 years, so the addition of current debt is not because Jokowi want to owe, but indeed a need to be done to cover the deficit budget.
Jokowi build infrastructure everywhere, because Jokowi aware for the size of our big country is still far behind compared to other big countries, From Suharto until SBY Indonesia only has 500 km of toll roads, now the length of TOL in Indonesia has reached 1099 km, the target until 2019 is 1,852 km long.
The first period of Jokowi’s reign is to repair the damaged system, we hope the second period will be much better, we may not see Indonesia parallel to the US, China, Russia and other big countries, but I am sure our grandchildren will be able to enjoy it,
All of the world’s economic institutions say that if Indonesia continues to stabilize today, then by 2030 we will enter into the world’s 5 largest economies.
i"m netral… no politic and just ordinary people . i believe that the article is true 1000 %.
Liana the wife of Farrel…. sure. Only if I know what better knowledge that you no longer have. Soft, medium, or hard cheese?
Schillachi Bianco since I am no longer live in the country and do not have better knowledge, I would like to know your better knowledge of Indonesia that you claim. Please provide your inside view. Cheese
In my perception this article.is to remind us , indonesia for mirroring ourselves .
If you dont read the news, youre uninformed. If you do, you’re misinformed.
I really think this article is merely a click bait. And not a good one too, to be honest.
What the hell…..this macbeth doesnt even speak indonesia and can you trust him……just look! An old guy just to finish his pension time in Bali!
https://www.google.it/imgres?imgurl=https://cdn4.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/250×250/public/john_mcbeth.jpg?itok%3DmoKVfhZU&imgrefurl=http://www.scmp.com/author/john-mcbeth&h=250&w=250&tbnid=2meTPaFmU5G6rM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=160&usg=__d9cMSzWAEe9xQL1H3-_dms7Z9JA%3D&vet=10ahUKEwij1Ny0xMzZAhXLUlAKHe2nBoMQ_B0InQEwCg..i&docid=Ro4TPlMnTiZJsM&itg=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwij1Ny0xMzZAhXLUlAKHe2nBoMQ_B0InQEwCg
the question is, is he even capable of doing at least a bit quality of Soeharto? i’m sorry his broken english not even convinced me, let alone proper communications.. what i hear from day one is only hope hope work work.
yes, critics will always criticize. about the steel handed ruler? if that’s necessary and proven efficient to run a country, so be it. no need to be hypocritical about it. we indonesians need to live and provide to each other.
Muhammad Shalahuddin .yea i agree with you. The big question is #what the prestation of zonk*** ?? We can jailed of telling the truth ini this country
I’m Indonesian, and I testify that all these programs are TOTALLY FAILED
1. Buyback Indosat -> Failed
2. No Rice Import -> Failed
3. Kick Freeport -> Failed
4. No Foreign Debt -> Failed
5. National Car, Esemka -> Failed
6. Slim Cabinet -> Failed
7. Keep Oil Price Low -> Total Fail
i can’t help but questioning the objectivity of this articel because there is no valid data or a real name source except "Jokowi", we need fact, data, who said it, when, what, it’s the simplest form of "Factual News", and at the end you said something about Soeharto, so i can you are the "seoharto dynasti" successor.
one thing is for sure, no transparency. people do not know what really happened. especially on the management of state finances. it is said that government debt is skyrocketing beyond the permitted limits. this is what makes the people sad and very worried about the performance of the cabinet. it is time for the government to honestly explain everything. do not camouflage
bani peyang koplak itu siapa ya?
I am a true Indonesian witnessing all political, economical, social, and cultural development in my beloved country, would like to hardly state that this article is totally baseless. In this information era. It is impossible for even a regime to blind fold their people from truth. And if it happened there must be obvious repressions and press restriction occured. In fact there is no such conditions happened here, in Indonesia. Instead, great and rapid economic, infrastructure, law enforcement, and other significant developments are happening today.. This mislead article is nothing but trash, hence need to be thrown away. Dan para komentator micin, bani peyang koplak, opo sing terjadi nek Indonesia ga iso kalian pungkiri. Dear writer of this fake article, We are, the Indonesians, a lot smarter and wiser now.. We dont buy your ridiculous bluff.. Salam 2 periode Jokowi. NKRI Harga Mati!
very well said