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.
"Indonesia can retain majority share"? Being noisy of having majority share is different than retaining majority share. This is one example of smoke and mirror.
Agus Nizami hey dude i am Indonesian too …. u r just brainwashed lol but so confident telling lies in a public what a crap????? since when prabowo become a president of Indonesia lol dream on too high????fake articles deciding the news which is much paid them to take down the politician who they don’t support . We should gathered together to report this fake article n the leader must be jailed
I’m Indonesian and I’m a supporter of Joko Widodo. He works hard to build the country. People say he cooperates with too many Chinese contractors. The reason is that only those Chinese contractors accept the strict conditions as required by the Indonesian government. Even the Japanese wouldn’t accept these. About Freeport, this company keeps saying that Papua would be in a great loss if Freeport left Papua. While in fact, even after Freeport has been operating in Papua for decades, Papuanese are still impoverished and under-developed. Malnutrition keeps on track. Come and see them by yourself. Freeport is only a company. In the end it only cares of profit. Cigarette industry gives bigger contributions to Indonesian economy than Freeport. Meanwhile, Freeport has dug holes in Papua for gold, diamond and uranium. Now that Joko Widodo wants to levy higher tax on them, Freeport tries to sack him.
Much in this article needs proving. Ignasius jonan was sacked after the idul fitri traffic jam death … And he was later appointed as the ministet of energy.
Only in jokowi era, indonesia can retain majority share of freeport indonesia.
I question the accuracy and validity of this article … And i also question the integrity of the journalist and also the media that publish this article
Dean Ramadhan true !, president should not take any responsibility’s at all.. AT ALL !
Noble Earl yes ofcourse, but still better than prabowo
May be only you, not me and they????????
It’s just an opinion from foreign writer who didnt see the policy history over changing regime, and also the lack of the data taking for his own false understanding over Indonesia. Comparing with Soeharto’s successful story of self-supplied rice is another funny quote.
. your comments are very true, our farmers are tarnished with rice imports when we harvest big. Mr. Hardo Husodo represents us who feel the impact of the current state of Indonesia. Thank You
Rara Zara, saya tinggal di Indonesia dan awalnya saya adalah timses Jokowi, pak Jokowi yang saat ini jauh beda dari Jokowi yang mungkin anda ketahui, memang beliau presiden secara sah dan konstitusional tapi fakta dan kenyataan yang terjadi beliau hanya dianggap petugas partai justru oleh kalangan internal sendiri, keputusan² strategis masih tetap ditangan ketua umum dengan Tim yang telah masuk di kabinet dan beberapa pos penting seperti watimpres dan kepala staff kepresidenan, beberapa janji kampanye pun tidak/belum dilaksanakan bahkan ada yang di ingkari, janji stop import beras dan garam di ingkari, janji mentri dilarang rangkap jabatan di ingkar dan masih ada lagi yang lain.
the writer of this article,John McBeth is Prabowo’s friend,so….LOL,,
he call him a president already,,what a jerk
Muhamad Fajri golongan kamfret. Pantes aja nyinyir aja kerjaannya, disaat ada media asing kritik Jokowi seneng bgt dia kaya orang orgasme berhari2????????
Massive thanks for the information ????
Why people always judge the book by its cover? Because that is the easiest way…While some people said that Indonesia now better than before, the tragedy in Asmat uncover the truth….Never forget, the easiest way to be a leader is winning by deception
Ngadiman Sastro I can’t resist to reply this statement where I quote
"And for some cases I also agree with your teminology that there are "tremendous growth" in some area such as: govt’s huge debts, hoax and obfuscations, hate speech, and negative stigmatization to muslim as radicals & antipluralism."
Seriously, Indonesia debt is currently the lesser among many countries (http://www.livemint.com/Politics/JQSe09YNYzOttmYrj8bNHK/Asian-nations-swimming-in-debt-are-at-risk.html).
And I hope you’re kidding when you point your arrow and blaming president for hoax, hate speech, stigmatization, and radicalism. From what I understand, this issues came from those radical organization and the goverment opppsition team. For once, try to look from the minority side of view and you’ll know who are the source of radical and antipluralism. I hate it when the suspect plays victim all the time.
I totally respect your voice and believe in freedom of speech (doubt so in Indonesia), but I do hope you can straight the fact out first and not file any accusation. Peace 🙂
Regarding the statistic everyone is asking about, let’s start from the tourism sector where in 2017 and 2018 Indonesia receives 20% ++ growht. and under previous goverment, the growht is usually around 10%. What about the maritime sector where illegal fishing has drastically reduced, and the infrastucture that has been reducing inequality around province. (I’m too tired to scraped out related sources while in the end of the day people would just call it fake news)
I understand everyone has high hopes in Indonesia and wanted it to be a better palce. I respect everyone opinion and y’all got a point, there is numerous problem that needed to be solved. But personally, I think changes are started to happen, you can’t expect perfection in matter of 5 short years. Now lets say Prabowo won the election back then, will he do a better job? I personally doubt so.
The worst president ever that Indonesia have,, never never vote this liar again in 2019..
Tottally agreed with this article,
Critics will always criticize. Comparing Soeharto with Widodo is comparing 2 great president from different era, and different acceptable styles. Do we Indonesian want to go back to Soeharto hard hand regime? Widodo will be able to move things if he is using Soeharto ways of ruling. No President is perfect, once the president has been elected, it is our duty to make sure he along with the citizens work to improve this country.
While we fight each other about our choices in past election and what the reality is happening now….as a man who picked Jokowi, i demand him to fulfil his own words. Ten million works. Where are they now? But i willnot refuse fighting my hope. I willnot stop asking about that job because until today i still keep changing job from one to another. With i am getting older, and the chances become more limited, i started feeling being a fool for trusting Jokowi words. Soon the underworld will become my last stand but it is better than not eating. People who close to government definitely will disagree with me, but you got paid to say good word about this regime while i got nothing for supporting this regime which i had done in election and pre-election. Now i am running away from one job to another job and become laughing stock for what i chose.