January 20, 2025
JAKARTA – President Prabowo Subianto showed his enthusiasm for the return of Donald Trump to the White House by calling the latter just a few days after his victory in the Nov. 5, 2024, election. Apart from the desire to nurture a good relationship with the incoming United States leader, Prabowo owed Trump for lifting a ban that prevented him from entering the US for 20 years.
Prabowo has a unique attachment to Trump because it was during Trump’s first presidency that Washington repealed the ban imposed on the former Indonesian army general for his alleged role in past atrocities. Prabowo has never been formally charged with gross human rights violations.
After the entry ban was lifted, Prabowo, as defense minister, visited the US as the guest of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in October 2020. Prabowo was received by President Joe Biden at the White House last November as he visited the US as President en route to the Group 20 Summit and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit.
Prabowo reportedly tried hard to arrange a meeting with Trump during his US stopover but had to be content with a phone call. He is reportedly eager to be among the first foreign leaders to be received by Trump after his inauguration as the 47th US president on Jan. 20.
To show Trump that Indonesia considers the US an important partner, however, Prabowo must quickly appoint an envoy to Washington, DC, or else miss the opportunity to attract the US president’s attention.
Indonesia has left its ambassadorial post in the US vacant since July 2023. Worse, such vacuums repeatedly occurred during Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s 10-year presidency.
Jokowi replaced his ambassador to the US three times, twice during Trump’s first presidency from January 2017 to January 2021. This kind of inconsistency could offend the host country, and Prabowo should not repeat the mistake.
In January 2019, Jokowi appointed career diplomat Mahendra Siregar to the US ambassadorship, only to pull him out after nine months to name him deputy foreign minister. The post was left vacant for nearly a year until Jokowi named Muhammad Lutfi ambassador in September 2020, before withdrawing him three months later to have him serve as trade minister.
After 10 months of vacancy, Jokowi sent Rosan Roeslani to fill the post in DC in October 2021. Rosan served until July 2023, when Jokowi appointed him deputy state-owned enterprises minister.
Learning from these diplomatic blunders, Prabowo needs to end the practices that have made it challenging to appoint ambassadors on time. Many ambassadorial posts are empty because of bureaucratic hurdles at the Foreign Ministry, not to mention the horse trading between the House of Representatives and the Presidential Office. The Constitution requires the President to seek the House’s confirmation of his or her ambassadorial candidates.
There are two ways to fill ambassadorial posts: through the Foreign Ministry for career diplomats or through the House and president for political appointees. Prabowo could end the culture of foot-dragging by setting a fixed deadline for the appointment of ambassadors.
In welcoming Trump’s second administration, Prabowo should not only send the best person for the job but also someone with a vast network in the world’s largest economy and hopefully easy access to the White House.
Foreign Minister Sugiono should also revamp the Indonesian embassy in DC, especially its economic section. In line with his plan to revive the Directorate General for Foreign Economic Cooperation, Sugiono needs exceptional diplomats with economic specialties to fill key posts at the DC embassy.
Prabowo can learn from former US president Ronald Reagan in appeasing his host. When Reagan came to Bali in April 1986, he announced the promotion of one of his senior diplomats, Paul Wolfowitz, as the US ambassador to Indonesia. Wolfowitz is still remembered as the most popular US envoy to Indonesia.
Hopefully Prabowo can find the right ambassador to the US as soon as possible.