Jakarta. India and Indonesia. Just the names of these two countries mirror the multitude of similarities they have between them. Both names shares the same ancient Greek root word, Indo. Although not sharing any land border, India and Indonesia have a very long history of contact and interactions which have left deep influences that have survived up until this very day.
However, despite sharing such strong historical ties and sharing so much in common, India and Indonesia treat each other like distant cousins. Cousins living so far apart, who barely know each other. So close yet so far.
With such a long list of shared affinity and challenges, India and Indonesia stand out as a natural partner for each other. It also stands to reason that this South Asian sub-continent and the world’s largest archipelagic nation, continue to perpetuate and strengthen their centuries of close contact and interaction. However, present day realities are far from reflecting that.
“Masala Bumbu, Enhancing the India-Indonesia Partnership” re-examines this relationship and seeks to find what can and needs to be done to realize its enormous promises. It scrutinizes these ties from an extensive range of angles, through the eyes and minds of 34 writers from India and Indonesia, all prominent figures and experts coming from a wide range of background. Diplomats, academics, activists, entrepreneurs, politicians, researchers, journalists, and many more, dissected bilateral relations and linkages from their own perspective.
All contributors, and the book’s very own editor and conceptor, the Indian ambassador to Indonesia, Gurjit Singh, are quick to mention the deep ties binding these two Asian giants since times immemorial. Some go to great length to enumerate the abundant interaction between the people of the two countries and the pervasive influences they exert until this day.
It becomes clear, as one reads the book, that everyone is in agreement that there is a need to balance such long and strong past links with current and future interest.
Both countries clearly should not remain complacent, content in the knowledge that they have had a deep and multi-faceted historical link that includes a shared recent past in which both countries were at the forefront of the fight against colonialism.
The book shows that there is a need to deepen the engagement between India and Indonesia and in that light, it is important that the leaders in New Delhi and Jakarta put a high priority on mutually forging better ties, between their countries and also between their people. The leaders, especially since the current ones in both countries are figures who broke the mold of politicians we have all been accustomed to, need to seek ways to reinvigorate strategic ties between their two countries.
But it also becomes clear that forging these closer ties cannot only be left to them and is actually an endeavor that should involve the active participation of the people and institutions in all fields and at all levels in both countries.
Looking at the many analyses made by writers from both sides, the picture emerges that although the two countries grew closer to each other in the middle of the last century, when they shared a common cause in promoting independence and abolishing colonialism, their subsequently diverging foreign policy interests forced them to drift apart for decades.
Ties warmed again with the advent of a number of domestic and regional factors that brought the realization that the two countries stand to gain by working more closely with each other.
A number of events helped India and Indonesia recognize the growing importance and clout of the other, and propelled them to realign their interests and move closer towards one another. They also helped raise awareness on the need to accord a greater focus to each other.
The rise of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which Indonesia is a key player, as an economic power, China’s rising assertiveness and the resulting uneasy power balance in the region, the global economy slow down that forces emerging countries to look for new markets, as well as India’s “Look East” policy, all encouraged the two countries to have a second, longer, closer look at one another.
Bilateral ties received a boost when the leaders of the two countries agreed to upgrade their relations to the level of a strategic partnership in 2005.
However, the pace at which this relation is blooming between Indonesia and India has remained much too slow.
Although trade was one major factor behind the intensive cultural linkages between India and Indonesia in the distant past, trade between the two in present day, still leaves much to desire. In a world where economy is now at the core of diplomacy and partnership, trade and investment linkages between India and Indonesia not only needs to be stepped up but also widened to cover greater depth and more diversity.
Writers in this book dissect the interaction between the two countries and the two people, not only in the economy, but also in a wide range of sectors in an attempt at showing how this strategic partnership can be enhanced, including through a more intense dialogue at all levels, public and private.
Engagements in democracy, the economy, regional and world security, food security, consumption, energy, education, civil society, human resource, the development, culture, technology, the media and even in corporate social responsibility, are being cited as carrying huge potentials in bringing the two nation closer to each other through mutually beneficial cooperation.
“Masala Bumbu” guides us through the basic premises in a wide range of current and possible cooperation sectors, and points at the directions that could be taken to bring these engagements up to the next level.
It also highlights that now is the time for the leaders and people of both countries to work closer together to identify means and harness ways, to nurture, widen and diversify their engagements and linkages
Without doubt, this book not only reminds us of the affinities we have but also gives us a glimpse, if not an insight, into how we view each other. Trying to know each other well breeds familiarity and this is the first step towards a better understanding of each other and to a warmer, closer and more robust ties.
Ambassador Gurjit Singh aptly puts it, when he labels the relationship and cooperation between India and Indonesia, as “a work in progress.” And the emphasis should be on the last word. Progress.
Masala Bumbu is published by Beritasatu Media Holdings and is available at leading bookstores in Jakarta. You can also order via phone, at 021 29957555, or e-mail, subscription.services@beritasatumedia.com.
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