Indonesia can be a force for regional stability as the US and China duel on the world economic stage
Syahrial Mukhtar says as Beijing and Trump’s America prepare for confrontation over the economic and strategic future of the world, it will fall to Indonesia to perform a balancing act in Southeast Asia
Something amazing is occurring, but so unsettling are the times that few realise the gravity of the change.
Under its radical new leader, the United States is turning inwards. President Donald Trump used his inaugural address on January 20 to underline a key theme of his campaign: he would restore America to greatness by bringing back American jobs, borders, wealth and dreams.
Under its radical new leader, the US is turning inwards
China, however, is saying the opposite. President Xi Jinping (習近平), speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos just a few days earlier, mounted a spirited defence of the open economic borders created and sustained by globalisation. Warning against throwing out the economic baby along with the bathwater of problems, he called on countries to adapt to and guide globalisation, cushion its problematic consequences, and deliver its benefits to all countries.
Watch: Xi Jinping says globalisation is the way forward
Here was the pragmatic leader of a communist nation challenging the protectionist ideology of the leader of a capitalist democracy.
Herein lies the gravity of the situation. The US, whose rise to global power since the end of the second world war has rested on the export of a free-trade economic regime, is retreating from the vanguard of globalisation. And China is seeking to inherit the mantle of economic leadership, regional if not yet global.
For Indonesia, the message is clear. Since history is turning that corner, and possibly making a U-turn, Indonesia has to choose between a possibly receding world order based on America’s economic activism, and an approaching Asia-centric order premised on China’s ascendancy.