Insight: RI’s active role in global affairs: An Indonesian to head the WTO?
Jusuf Wanandi and Djisman Simandjuntak | Insight | Mon, February 25 2013, 9:20 AM
Klipping The Jakarta Post
Paper Edition | Page: 3
One of the hallmarks of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s second term has been Indonesia’s willingness to once again take a leadership role in international and regional affairs.
The Indonesian government’s decision to put Tourism and Creative Economy Minister (and former trade minister) Mari Elka Pangestu forward as a candidate for director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is further proof of an Indonesia that is confident about its role in global affairs.
If Mari is elected as the new WTO director general, she will not only break the glass ceiling of being the first woman to hold this job, but will also remove another important barrier. Historically, Indonesia has been unwilling to send the best and brightest to international institutions because they are needed at home. It is something we all can be proud of. Indonesians taking top positions in global organizations is a testament to the progress we have made as a nation.
As an internationally renowned economist and academic with a seven-year tenure as Indonesian trade minister, Mari is widely held as one of the most capable candidates in a nine-person field of contenders for the WTO position.
Mari’s term as trade minister gave her wide exposure to the complexities and sensitivities of trade policy. Out-of-the box thinking, building consensus and finding inclusive solutions have been her trademark, and they are qualities that would serve her well at the WTO.
She was in charge when Indonesia’s free trade agreements with China, Japan and Korea (ROK) were negotiated, pursuing them as a second-best measure at a time when negotiations under the multilateral trading system (WTO) were at a standstill. When China and Japan could not agree whether an ASEAN +3 or an ASEAN +6 should become the template for free trade in East Asia, she and other ASEAN colleagues took the initiative to establish the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), consisting of all ASEAN free trade agreements with the ASEAN +6 members and balanced commitments on measures of greater inclusion and sustainability.
That is why it is only appropriate that she will get support from East Asian governments. She has the experience, commitment, intellectual capacity and demeanor for the post she is being proposed to serve.
With stalled multilateral negotiations and the global trading system constantly under threat from narrow domestic agendas and beggar-thy-neighbor policies, it is more important than ever to look for the best candidate. And especially for a candidate from a region that is serving the world as the main source of economic growth and dynamism.
Mari can enrich the WTO process and the international community with valuable lessons from East Asian experiences of policy making. This is one of those opportunities where Indonesia’s achievements and leadership could be recognized, with a candidate who stands out as one of the best in her own right, and who will make a difference for
future free and fair trade globally.
Mari has the unique combination of being a scholar in trade economics, a “second track” activist with worldwide networking that has given ideas and input to governments and the public, as well as a practitioner in the form of trade minister.
Jusuf Wanandi is vice chair of the Board of Trustees at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Foundation. Djisman Simandjuntak is chair of the Board of Directors, CSIS Foundation.
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