Sabtu, 06 September 2014

A president worthy of a maritime nation and a sea power

A president worthy of a maritime nation and a sea power

Ziad Salim  ;   A retired international civil servant
JAKARTA POST, 05 September 2014

                                                                                                                       
                                                      

When I was a boy, I used to go to the river for everything, not just to play or swim but to do everything I needed to survive as a poor boy in a poor village. I responded to all calls of nature in that river, including hunger, by catching fish and prawns with my bare hands.

Now, I wouldn’t dream of even dipping my toe in that river: its water is a veritable chemical soup complete with traces of mercury from illegal gold panning. So water is a big deal, for me but even more so for the president of an island-nation, 70 percent of whose seas or rivers have been used and abused as a dumping ground, just like that river in my village.

It is also a big deal if he comes from a poor family too, growing up near a dirty river and doing what I did. The difference is that he came up with a vision to turn the country into a maritime nation and sea power, while all I could do is dream of such a country.

So when Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had to make his victory speech and ran to the water’s edge at Sunda Kelapa and hopped onto a local boat to make a short speech, at his side a short man who hailed from an island and a city synonymous with sailing, I was ecstatic.

That was nothing short of astounding and since then images of a new Indonesia steeped in its watery history and tradition have been churning in my head, day and night.

So one night I dreamt I met Jokowi. As I was sleeping, he sat next to my bed.

Feeling important (and him being so humble), unbidden I gave him a little advice on how to quickly turn his dream of making Indonesia “the world’s maritime axis” into a reality, at least symbolically, within his first 100 days in office. 

For a start, I told him to embark on a long-term but sustained daily nationwide public campaign to clean up all the country’s waterways (rivers, reservoirs, creeks, lakes, deltas, straits, seas).

Then  he should urge Indonesians to eat the fruits of the nation’s waters (local fish and other seafood) on one or two days every week.

Jokowi should buy up all of the Thousand Islands and move the capital there.

I hesitated before imparting this next piece of advice, as it goes to the heart of what makes him who he is: I told him to stop the blusukan (impromptu visits), at least in Jakarta; the city still harbors at least 95 disgruntled lawyers, dozens of resentful constitutional law experts, bogus surveyors, scores of talking heads and thousands of paid professional street thugs, all of whom have tried to bring him down.

I reminded him that Indonesia is not Jakarta, but if he insisted on continuing his blusukan, I told him to sell the new presidential airplane and buy a big boat instead, and fit her with all modern communication equipment so he can get in touch with anyone anywhere in the world.

The ship would be his floating blue water palace, just like the one that used to be in the service of the head of the British Empire before it ceased to exist.

Then I tantalized him with these images: the new president of the new sea power would travel on his great ship to every ASEAN or Asian city for his meetings or state visits; he would certainly make waves, even if he didn’t (yet) rule the waves.

At home, he could regularly go and visit his citizens in far away and far-flung islands; indeed, he could anchor in every provincial capital for a week or two and run the country from there.

If he so chose, he could dock and go about his blusukan, and upon entering a port, he would be ushered in by scores if not hundreds of small vessels.

He would take such an opportunity to announce a raft of new measures: the creation of a maritime bank specializing in loans to fishermen and maritime industries; at Bakauheni or Merak, he would announce that all inter-island ferries and ships would be upgraded and regulated according to international maritime standards of sea-worthiness so that no more Indonesians would die in shameful watery graves;

In Surabaya, he would announce the city as the center of ship-building, with warship production to increase for the Indonesian Navy; in Makassar, he would announce the creation of the best maritime university in Southeast Asia or even the world; at Sunda Kelapa, he would announce the purchase of a big ship as a floating hospital to travel to every part of the country to provide rare medical services to the poor; and finally, in Sabang, he would announce his plan to purchase one big cruise ship and another, in Merauke, both of which would do the wira-wiri (to and fro) as the floating platforms of his “toll laut”, or ocean toll road.

All these initiatives would galvanize the people, increase the country’s unity and safety and the people’s patriotism, and generate new sources of economic growth-- the McKinsey Global Institute predicts that Indonesia could rank as the seventh largest economy in the world by 2030 if it mobilized its maritime resources.

Last but not least, tourism would increase because people would come to see not just a new Indonesia but also a new country with a unique approach to life, development and governing and a visionary new president.

Then I noticed Jokowi yawn and fall asleep. I was hoping to continue by telling him to scrap the Sunda bridge plan as redundant if his ocean toll road became a reality, and not to buy or use drones because they are inconsistent with his maritime concept. He should trust the millions of fishermen and the reinvigorated Navy to spot illegal loggers, illegal fishing boats and smugglers.

Unfortunately, Jokowi fell asleep too soon, left too soon and I woke up too soon too. Maybe he was bored with my speech or he had planned to enact all these measures anyway.

But it was still too bad, because I hadn’t given him with my last, best piece of advice: he should buy up all of the Thousand Islands and move the capital there.

No more flooding and no more traffic jams, and because all government employees and visitors would see water before they saw anything else, their mind-sets would change and become more attuned to the maritime nature of the country.

He could leave Jakarta. He could move from place to place in a boat in his new capital, engage in blusukan through all the rivers, reservoirs and canals that he has dredged and cleaned up and loved so much.

Then we would have a president worthy of a sea power and a maritime nation.

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