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JAKARTA POST EDITORIALIZES ON JAPANESE DEMOCRACY AND BILATERAL RELATIONS

A very interesting editorial appeared in the Jakarta Post a few days ago that reflects on the Japanese democratic system and Japan-Indonesia bilateral relations. The editorial is very clearly written, so there is little need to add much more in my introduction. It is interesting that the Jakarta Post editors see Japan as mostly caught in stagnation while Indonesia is moving forward.

The Fukuda Doctrine

Jakarta Post

Indonesia remains a very young and fragile democracy, compared to Japan's more established democracy. In nearly all aspects of life Indonesia lags far behind Japan. However, watching from afar the closed-door maneuvering by Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to elect its new head -- who automatically becomes the country's new prime minister because the party holds the majority of seats in the Lower House -- many Indonesians feel luckier than the Japanese.

Although Indonesia only began to practice real democracy after Suharto's fall in 1998, its people already have the final say on who gets to be president. How come Japan, the world's second most powerful economy after the United States, continues to restrict the rights of its citizens to directly elect their leader?

It is true that each country has its own political system, but when Indonesia, whose economy is still very much dependent on Japan, is so far ahead in practicing the one-man-one-vote principle, perhaps it is time for the Japanese people to ask: How did this happen?

It is true that many other developed countries have adopted a similar electoral system. But for Indonesians, being ahead of Japan in this regard is some small consolation for the economic hardships they must continue to endure.

Despite this, Japan remains the world's largest money lender through its Official Development Assistance (ODA) program. Its economic power remains pivotal for global economic growth, although China's economy is growing rapidly and will likely leapfrog Japan in the coming decades. That is why the international community closely watched the election of senior politician Yasuo Fukuda as Japan's new prime minister on Sunday, replacing Shinzo Abe who abruptly resigned after about a year in power after the opposition won Upper House elections a few months ago. Many doubt Fukuda will last any longer than Abe, but if people are satisfied with his leadership it is not out of the question that Fukuda will call for elections early next year.

Thirty years ago the father of the new prime minister, then prime minister Takeo Fukuda, articulated -- in what would later become known as the Fukuda Doctrine -- Japan's foreign policy cornerstone during a visit to Manila. The "heart-to-heart" policy included the commitment that Japan would not re-emerge as a military power and that Japan would upgrade its ties with Southeast Asia. Fukuda issued his policy three years after massive anti-Japanese riots during the visit of Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka to the region in 1974.

Now the question on the Fukuda Doctrine has resurfaced. While Japan's prime ministers have frequently reiterated their commitment to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), relations have not moved beyond economic interests, including investment and Official Development Assistance. It is clear that Japan's top priorities are the United States, China and the two Koreas, while the country's relations with ASEAN often appear unbalanced because of Japan's greater economic might.

Indonesia, however, has great expectations for Fukuda, because he also chairs the Japan-Indonesia Association (Japinda). It has been nearly a decade since a top Japanese politician has paid special attention to Indonesia, since the death of Michio Watanabe. Hopefully, when Indonesia and Japan commemorate the 50th anniversary of their friendship next year Fukuda will still be at the helm, so he can lead the celebration together with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

We hope that under Fukuda, Japan's relationship with Indonesia will not be disrupted by matters from the past. Fukuda has clearly indicated relations with China and the two Koreas will top his list of Asian priorities. We just hope he will include Indonesia on the list.

COMMENTARY

1) From Martin Thiry of the University of Hawaii on September 28, 2007:

Abe Ouster Duly Noted In Indonesia

On Wednesday of this week the Indonesian-language newspaper Kompas printed an editorial regarding the resignation of Shinzo Abe and the selection of Yasuo Fukuda as his replacement. Kompas is the newspaper of record for Indonesia, similar in stature to the New York Times in the United States. It introduces Fukuda by referring to him as a widely known senior politician and notes that Fukuda has served as head of the Japanese-Indonesian Friendship Society (Japinda). The editorial predicts that Fukuda will need to spend most of his tenure repairing the image and influence of the LDP amongst the Japanese people. Kompas assesses Fukuda's chances in this regard as good, provided he sticks to a notion of politics as "the art of the possible." Mention is made of the Diet opposition which served to frustrate Abe and his new ideas.

On the whole the editorial is a fair, if rather vanilla, treatment of the situation. One paragraph, however, stands out. Towards the end of the piece the editors write: "The process of changing a prime minister does not create chaos [in Japan] because the democratic system within the parties and the Japanese people is, in general, mature. A little wave within politics is not going to influence much in the other areas of life, such as the economy" [Note: this translation is mine].

This can be read as a rather thinly-veiled reference to the recently implemented Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the signing of which was one of Abe's last acts in office. The editors are secure in the belief that the EPA will not be impacted by the vicissitudes of Japanese politics.

I think that they are largely correct in this regard. What is truly notable is that no reference is made to the hot button issue of the DPJ's opposition to the MSDF mission in the Indian Ocean. One might think that in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, a debate about support for the war in Afghanistan (and possibly for the war in Iraq) would be big news. This is not, however, the case. The image of Indonesia as a country fiercely devoted to events in the larger Islamic world owes a lot to the very photogenic protests staged in Jakarta (e.g. recent denunciations of Playboy and Nike) that have overtly religious themes. At the end of the day, the soundness of the EPA means that reaction to the change of prime ministers in Japan is relatively muted.