Our ‘pinsan’ — the Indonesians

Traveling in the region even if only for a few days can be very rewarding.  You never know what you will discover even in the most casual of trips. I often go to Singapore and cannot imagine it would be an adventure. I like its food, its lush greenery, efficient public transport and its clean, well lighted streets.

This trip was different. I did discover or more accurately rediscovered – Indonesia – that although miles away was like finding a long lost relative and old neighbor in an unlikely place. Serendipity.

It happened because I met up with a good friend who was eager to chat me up on the recent elections. Did I know Joko Widodo? Did I know that he won the recent elections in Indonesia after a last two-minute election brawl with the establishment figure, Prabowo Subianto, a former military general.  No, was my embarrassed answer.

He had taken for granted that I would, the Philippines being so close to Indonesia, historically and geographically. He had looked forward to hearing my views and that it would be an interesting conversation. And while I was embarrassed at my ignorance, I quickly picked up on his reprimand – what is wrong with you Filipinos? How could what happens in Indonesia not matter to you?

And so he convinced me that from hereon, Indonesia and what happens to Indonesia will be an important concern  to this column. To be fair, it was not always the case that Filipinos and Indonesians were aloof with each other. I once interviewed Minister B.J. Habibie and made a special trip from London to Jakarta for a British magazine when he was busy making Indonesian airplanes. He welcomed me as his “Pinsan.” I did not get it first so he had to retell the story of Philippine-Indonesian relations.

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I remember that as a young newspaper reporter, the regional concept of Maphilindo was at the center of the region’s politics during the time of the late President Diosdado Macapagal in 1963.

But its historical basis has deeper and longer roots. How many know for example that the dream was first articulated by Dr. Jose Rizal? To him it was a dream to unite the Malay peoples who were divided by colonial frontiers.

But it was not until Diosdado Macapagal became president that he convened a summit in Manila for the three countries to sign agreements to make it a reality. The region was plagued by border controversies over the former British colonies of North Borneo and Sarawak joining Malaysia. The Malay people or what Mahathir had also referred to once when speaking to Filipinos that we were all Bangsa Moro faced with insurmountable difficulties from colonial history. It is that but the concept that we must revive as a possibility in the minds of the peoples of the three nations of Malay origins.

Had we continued on this path of a tightly knit combination of our three countries, the fortunes of the Philippines would have been different — Malaya, Philippines and Indonesia, after all, came from the same stock of people, intrepid seafarers with skin browned by the sun for constant sailing, trading and more importantly, intermarrying and settling as if it were one country made  up of archipelagos with the sea as the unifying factor.

But the dream faded with the onset of Western imperialism to the point that we became strangers to each other.  We will had to relearn and relive that past.

In its place came Asean but circumstances frustrated Rizal’s dream. This would be a lengthy discourse and this column would not be the time or place to go through these.  At least for now.

The Asean regional unity sidelined the burgeoning Maphilindo ties. With the turn of events, the Philippines became isolated. Although a member of Asean, its influence was diluted with the impression that we were closer to American patronage than we were to our indigenous neighbors and their cultures. We may be loath to admit it but we are not considered as influential in mainstream Asean.

To get back the influence we had in Maphilindo, we can begin by working on our  pinsan relations with Indonesia as Minister Habibie called it. “Your are Filipino. Filipinos and Indonesians are long lost cousins.”

 But seriously, a closer Indonesian-Philippine relation would be the key to getting back into mainstream Asean policymaking and decisions.

It is time that we resurrect the Maphilindo spirit, however impossible it may seem, because of the British-inspired creation of Malaysia with whom we have intractable problems on the Sabah claim. That can be laid aside for the time being but we can definitely strengthen our ties with Indonesia.

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To go back to my disappointed friend who wanted a more interesting conversation, I have since done some work to find out more about the recent Indonesian elections and the winner, Joko Widodo.

It took some time for his rival, the elitist Prabowo to accept his defeat but the Indonesian commission on elections made the decision and declared Joko Widodo the winner. He and his cabinet will take over the Indonesian government in October.

When his victory was announced, Widodo was quoted as having said that “growing up under the authoritarian and corrupt New Order, he would have never expected someone with a lower-class background like him to become president.”

He goes around with a checked shirt and rolled up sleeves to live up to his reputation as “a man of the people.”

The New York Times also reported a quote from him saying “now, it’s quite similar to America, yeah? There is the American dream, and here we have the Indonesian dream.”

 Widodo is the first Indonesian president who did not come from the military or the political elite. As Salim Said, a political commentator said the election of Widodo is like “someone who is our neighbor, who decided to get into politics and run for president.”That is the significance of Widodo’s victory and the breakthrough in Indonesian politics.