Indonesia and the Philippines: Ties that bind
Jamil Maidan Flores | February 03, 2012

"I am glad the Vice President of the Philippines attended the Bali Democracy Forum this time,” said Ambassador Kristyarto Legowo over lunch with former Philippine Senator Francisco ‘Kit’ Tatad and journalist Andy del Rosario, who recently completed tenure as Philippine ambassador to Poland.

Kit Tatad, a member of the cabinet before he became a lawmaker, has metamorphosed to become political adviser to Vice President Jejomar Binay, who spoke for the country at the Fourth Bali Democracy Forum last December.
This friendly lunch was held in Manila recently. I completed the foursome: Kit and Andy are former classmates of mine, while I once worked closely with Ambassador Kris when he was spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The talk, naturally, was bilateral relations.

Ambassador Kris was profuse in his appreciation of Vice President Binay’s active participation at the Bali Democracy Forum. In the previous three sessions of the forum, ambassadors had represented the Philippines but now real top brass finally represented the country: a sign that the forum is being taken more seriously, to the Indonesian ambassador’s delight.

I thought but did not say that, ironically, the Philippines should be thankful it was still being invited to the forum. This is the only inter-governmental forum in Asia for dialogue and cooperation in political development but not all Asian countries are invited to participate in its deliberations, and those not invited are knocking at Indonesia’s door, asking to be let in.

Although the Philippines was the first republic to be born in Asia, the first country to adopt a written constitution in this part of the world, after 112 years it still has a lot to learn about democracy. It may have also forgotten a few things about democracy and has to re-learn them.

For instance, I thought, the president of the Philippines and his advisers could profit from a workshop on the necessity of checks and balances among the branches of government in a democratic system.
 
A rush to impeach

The talk at the table was now on the prospects of the forthcoming impeachment trial of the chief justice of the Supreme Court. At the time the Senate of the Philippines was preparing to sit in judgment over the merits of the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona, a move that had been orchestrated by none other than President Benigno Aquino III himself. He had rounded up a huge majority of members of the House of Representatives and made them all sign the bill of impeachment even before most of them had the chance to read it.

And for what? The main charge seemed to be that in a series of cases filed against Aquino’s predecessor, former President Gloria Arroyo, the chief justice had been biased because he had invariably decided in her favor. But without proof of bribery or other illegal considerations, how do you prove bias? The Supreme Court is a collegial body: the vote of the chief justice is only one of 15 votes. Were those who voted with him also biased?

If the president of the Philippines, through an impeachment process, invalidates the decisions of the chief justice, that simply means the president has obliterated the status of the Supreme Court as the highest authority on the interpretation of the law. He has dismantled the system of checks and balances that is at the heart of the democratic system.

Kit and Andy were dismissive of the strength of the impeachment case. “It’s a no-brainer,” said Andy. “The impeachment charges are weak.” Kit, who was a senator when former President Joseph Estrada was impeached, was indignant at the shortcuts that the Aquino administration had taken against the chief justice.

Ambassador Kris listened in polite silence. Perhaps he was thinking of the time when the Indonesian parliament, just over a decade ago and after many years of playing the role of rubber stamp, wielded so much power it terminated two successive presidencies.
 
The ravages of Washi

What the ambassador was most interested in was the sending of humanitarian aid from Indonesia to the victims of Tropical Storm Washi that brought torrential rains and flooding in Cagayan de Oro City and Iligan City in Mindanao.

Some 1,250 Filipinos lost their lives in the calamity. Tens of thousands remain displaced and in need of relief even at this writing. An outbreak of leptospirosis, in its deadliest form, is killing people in the affected communities.

When disaster struck, the government of Indonesia promptly earmarked a donation of $300,000 for the disaster victims and turned this over to the Philippine ambassador in Jakarta. Apart from that, the Indonesian community in Manila raised some $15,000 and the Indonesian embassy chipped in several thousand dollars more for the victims. Indonesia was ready to send in a planeload of medical and relief personnel with medical supplies worth $200,000 — but there was no go signal from the Philippine government.

“What I don’t want to happen,” the ambassador said, “is for people to ask in the midst of this natural disaster, ‘Where is ASEAN’?”  Well, ASEAN can truthfully proclaim that it was there for the stricken communities and is still there through Indonesia.

Now we were talking about what the two countries could do for each other. I pointed out that Indonesia could learn a thing or two from the experience of the Philippines in serving the welfare and interests of Filipino workers abroad. And that this was already being addressed.

I didn’t elaborate but there had been an announcement of an agreement between the two governments “to discuss the establishment of a steering committee” for that purpose.

There was more excitement when the subject of economic relations was brought up. I had thought that there was hardly any trade between the two countries but it turned out that the trade volume was not insignificant, with the balance very much in favor of Indonesia. Call it lopsided.

“We don’t want it that way,” said Ambassador Kris. “We would like our two-way trade to be more balanced.” But what can he do? The problem is on the Philippine side.
 
Yeomen of trade

One of the finest things that the Philippines can do about its economy is to do what Indonesia is doing: run an effective corps of trade attachés. Indonesia’s trade attachés are no geniuses and, true, they’ve been mocked by members of parliament for their poor command of English. But they are effective because they go out and look for trade opportunities — even to the farthest provinces. They know how to go about their job and they do it.

In contrast, their Filipino counterparts sit in the comfort of their offices. Most of them are in the sunset of uneventful careers — looking forward to the quiet delights of retirement.

That was the last bit of shoptalk, as Ambassador Kris had to leave and catch up with another appointment.

Days later, the vital role of trade attachés would again come to my mind when Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa announced that in 2012 the emphasis would be on economic diplomacy. I got the impression the stock of an Indonesian ambassador would rise or fall according to whether Indonesia’s economic relations with his country of assignment would advance or mark time. A “scorecard” had even been developed to establish benchmarks and targets.

For the Philippines’ sake, I hope Ambassador Kris Legowo will score highly and become one of Indonesia’s most successful envoys — especially when it comes to economic diplomacy. It would not be a bad idea if Philippine diplomacy put a similar emphasis on initiatives in the economic field.

During the presidency of Fidel V. Ramos, there was also a great deal of oratory in the Philippines about economic diplomacy but nothing much happened — partly because of a failure to create an effective corps of trade and investment promoters based at Philippine missions abroad.

It’s not yet too late to do that. If this tack toward economic diplomacy catches on among nations, peace has a better chance of becoming pervasive.

Lucrative economic relations never stopped a war between governments determined to fight it out but trade and investment growth that legitimizes governments is no small incentive for maintaining peace either. In fact, when things go wrong with the economy, leaders tend to pick a quarrel with an external enemy that will take the citizenry’s mind away from the real problem.

That is why reports about China’s housing bubble imploding, its construction boom going bust, and demand for its exports shrinking — these are all bad news to the Philippines, Indonesia and all who care about stability in the South China Sea. China must be helped. The best role for ASEAN countries in this regard is that of “cooler heads” that will persuade China and its major trading partners from engaging in a trade war.

As to the situation in the South China Sea itself, ASEAN and Chinese negotiators must work hard and fast at negotiating a legally binding Code of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea so that it can be adopted within this year. That will go a long way in ensuring that no shooting war erupts in the face of the many territorial disputes in the area.
 
Vital links

What about the Philippine proposal to segregate the disputed from the non-disputed areas in the South China Sea? “We will link the Philippine proposal in drafting the code,” says Marty Natalegawa.

“Link” is the word. The Philippine proposal, an excellent one, would have been more readily accepted by other ASEAN member countries if its authors had from the beginning bothered to conceptually link it with ongoing processes between ASEAN and China.

“Link” is also the word between the Philippines and Indonesia. The links of bloodline, history and culture are obvious but they have not really built upon these. They are linked by a long list of agreements but these have not been working to the benefit of Filipinos and Indonesians: Now these have to be reviewed and updated, which was the big decision reached during the meeting of their Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation a few weeks ago.

Review and update them all? That’s a truckload of work to do. But if there is any good news that transpired from these developments it can only be that both countries are now more fully awake to their links. And to each other. And that rectifies a lot of things.

Jamil Maidan Flores is special columnist for GlobeAsia.

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