January 20, 2025
jakarta – President Prabowo Subianto expressed his enthusiasm for returning to the White House in a phone call to Donald Trump days after the latter’s election victory on November 5, 2024 . In addition to hoping for a good relationship with the incoming U.S. leader, Prabowo also owes Trump the lifting of a 20-year-old ban on him entering the United States.
Prabowo has a unique attachment to Trump because it was during Trump's first term as president that Washington lifted a ban on the former Indonesian army general over his alleged role in past atrocities. played a role. Prabowo has never been formally charged with serious human rights violations.
After the entry ban was lifted, Prabowo, in his capacity as Defense Minister, visited the United States in October 2020 at the invitation of Defense Secretary Mark Esper. President Deng's reception at the White House.
Prabowo reportedly tried to arrange a meeting with Trump during his trip to the United States, but had to settle for making phone calls. According to reports, he is eager to be one of the first foreign leaders Trump receives after taking office as the 47th president.th Inaugurated as President of the United States on January 20.
However, in order to show Trump that Indonesia regards the United States as an important partner, Prabowo must quickly appoint a special envoy to Washington, otherwise he will miss the opportunity to attract the attention of the US president.
The post of Indonesian Ambassador to the United States has been vacant since July 2023.
Jokowi changed ambassadors to the United States three times and twice during Trump’s first term as president (January 2017 to January 2021). Repeat the same mistakes.
In January 2019, Jokowi appointed career diplomat Mahendra Siregar as U.S. ambassador but removed him nine months later and appointed him deputy foreign minister. The position remained vacant for nearly a year until Jokowi appointed Mohammad Lutfi as ambassador in September 2020, then removed him three months later and made him trade minister.
After a 10-month vacancy, Jokowi sent Rosan Roeslani to fill the Washington, D.C., position in October 2021. minister.
Learning from these diplomatic missteps, Prabowo needs to end the practice of making it difficult to appoint ambassadors on time. Many ambassadorial positions are vacant due to bureaucratic hurdles at the Foreign Ministry, not to mention the haggling between the House of Representatives and the Presidential Palace. The Constitution requires the president to seek confirmation from the House of Representatives of his ambassadorial nominees.
There are two ways to fill ambassadorial positions: career diplomats through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and political appointees through the House of Representatives and the President. Prabowo could end the culture of delay by setting fixed deadlines for ambassadorial appointments.
In welcoming the second Trump administration, Prabowo should send not only the best candidate, but also someone with extensive connections in the world's largest economy who is expected to easily win the White House.
Minister Sujiba should also revamp the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, especially its economic department. Under his plan to revitalize the Directorate General of Foreign Economic Cooperation, Sugino needs outstanding diplomats with economic expertise to fill key positions at the Washington, D.C., embassy.
Prabowo could learn from former US President Ronald Reagan how to appease his hosts. In April 1986, when Reagan came to Bali, he announced the promotion of one of his senior diplomats, Paul Wolfowitz, to the position of U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia. Wolfowitz is still considered the most popular U.S. envoy to Indonesia.
I hope Prabowo can find a suitable ambassador to the United States as soon as possible.
