Why Indonesia Adopted ‘Quiet Diplomacy’ over R2P in the Rohingya Crisis: The Roles of Islamic Humanitarianism, Civil–Military Relations, and asean

Abstract

Following atrocities against the minority Muslim Rohingya population by the Myanmar military, several states have imposed sanctions and deployed international justice strategies against the Myanmar government. In contrast, Indonesia has used an alternative ‘quiet diplomacy’ approach, focused on aid delivery to affected communities and cooperation with Myanmar. The paper presents one of the first empirical examinations of Indonesia’s role, and considers Indonesia’s approach from a realpolitik perspective to show why Indonesia has avoided R2P measures. The paper identifies three factors that shaped Indonesia’s approach: Islamic humanitarianism, Indonesia’s own experience of managing civil–military relations during a contested democratic transition, and its continued commitment to core asean principles. The paper also contributes to wider debates by identifying some of the limitations of R2P, especially in terms of how R2P can be sidelined by national and regional diplomatic priorities, in this case manifested in the quiet diplomacy approach.

Beyond Non-Interference: The Improved ASEAN Humanitarian-assistance Mechanism to Respond to the Myanmar Crisis

“…Meanwhile, Alexandra (2012) stated in his paper that the international community has witnessed a shift in the R2P norm since the formulation of the UN Secretary General's report on the implementation of R2P in 2009, focusing more on "prevention" rather than "direct intervention," which is more flexible for ASEAN to internalize. In such circumstances, Some supporters argued that ASEAN should explore employing the whole spectrum of R2P tools, including economic penalties, arms embargoes, and criminal accountability (Smith & Williams, 2021).…”

The Characteristics of Indonesian Digital Diplomacy

“…Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno -prominent candidates for the presidential election in 2019 -attended the event (Fahlevi, 2017). Many local and national Islamic organisations became more vocal and pressured the GOI to be more active internationally to solve the problem (Fauzia, 2017;Smith & Williams, 2021).…”

“…Thus, the MoFA and Indonesian Mission in Yangon were very careful not to initiate any backlash on the government (personal communication). Although asserting a firm position to the international audience was required, extra attention to the domestic situation was equally necessary because of several factors such as Indonesia's history of civilmilitary relations, the international intervention in East Timor, and the history of ethnonationalist conflicts (Smith and Williams, 2021). Such emphasis was evident based on a tweet by the MoFA in Bahasa Indonesia (Figure 5) (MoFA Indonesia, 2017) to make it easier to grasp for Indonesians.…”

“…Indonesia has taken up a form of humanitarian diplomacy over the crisis, even when some scholars criticize the country for not being vocal as other Parties regarding the issue. In the past, scholars labelled it as the 'quiet diplomacy' of Islamic humanitarianism (Permata, Hijrah, & Sinulingga, 2019;Smith and Williams, 2021). As such, its foreign policy places greater emphasis on the humanitarian side of the conflict by providing humanitarian assistance rather than addressing the political nature of the conflict or confronting the Myanmar Government.…”

Contesting the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ in Southeast Asia: Rejection or Normative Resistance?

“…State elites believes that they have experience to deal with civil-military conflict and consider that a quiet and incremental approach to Myanmar authorities is more likely to create trust and thus better facilitate humanitarian assistance and the search for solutions. 131 Thus, albeit human rights norms have been adopted into ASEAN's institutional framework, they are generally understood and implemented according to the broader understandings of its core regional principles. 132 R2P proponents in the region, such as Mely Caballero-Anthony, argue that despite reluctance to accept the language of R2P, the region is already practising the key principle of R2P, namely atrocity prevention.…”