Prabowo’s 100 Days: A Maritime Point of View

President Prabowo Subianto has just arrived at the first milestone of a hundred days in his tenure a couple days ago. It is basically an informal phase in Indonesian political system and so has no political, legal, social impacts to his administration at all. Since the Reform Era the practice gets more and more traction and is applicable to all level of administration, from president, governor, to regent or mayor. According to a survey by Kompas Research and Development Department (Litbang Kompas), Prabowo’s 100 days administration is considered satisfied by a significant portion of the public, e.g. 80.9 percent. Another pollster, Center of Economic and Law Studies or Celios, on the other hand, rated it unsatisfactory. Despite the difference, specifically in the aspects of method and sampling, both polling agencies shared many common indicators for their evaluation like the issues on health, education and so on and so forth.

 The maritime matters, however, seem to be excluded from the surveyors’ consideration. It is understandable since the issue is a multifaceted one that can include shipping, port, and others; they may be under the headings of transportation or fisheries in the polling. There is no standard definition of maritime from the experts except that the term covers or relates to sailing on the sea or doing business, such as trading, or located near or next to the sea (The Britannica Dictionary). Within the context then a question can be raised: during 100 days of Prabowo administration, how is the achievement of his maritime affairs? Importantly, Prabowo is not known to be a maritime aspiration. He rarely calls the word since his candidacy in 2014 and 2019 presidential election. Even when he was the minister of defense, he introduced a land-based defense policy meanwhile his boss, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, had ushered in a maritime defense pillar in his vision of Global Maritime Fulcrum.

Lack of the quality, the hundred days of Prabowo’s maritime affairs were frankly marked by non-achievement. This judgment is tricky because his administration is mostly vacant on the maritime-related agenda. Whatever programs concerning the sector, the marine highway (Tol Laut) to mention one of them and port developments to support it, is totally carryover from his predecessor. So, there is honestly nothing to comment on. Still this article is going to deliver some notes on the topic reminding the national leadership as well as the public about what we would lose if the sector managed conventionally as it is now. First note, instead of just continuously implementing Jokowi’s maritime legacy, Prabowo needs to launch several adjustments on it due to intrinsic loopholes. For example, Tol Laut is still facing cargo imbalance, but the government keeps deploying more vessels or rearranging their legs. This only increases the subsidy provided by the government without a significant gain in reducing the logistical costs. The best way to settle the conditions is through developing massive industrialization outside Java Island but it is almost impossible to implement within a short time.

 In the meantime, President Prabowo of course can adopt policies to improve Tol Laut, one of which is shaking up its management. From the time of its introduction in 2015 the program is handled individually by a directorate-level in charge of shipping business, locally known as Ditlala, within the Transport Ministry. Other agencies, such as the Trade Ministry and Home Affairs Ministry, are conceptually also instructed to involve gathering cargo but so far are underperformed. Thus, making the entire program is merely as a shipping matter wherein its share in the price formation is only 20 percent. The costs of trucking, warehousing, etc., do not fall under the purview are not under the Ministry of Transport. This is the root cause of the ineffectiveness of Tol Laut in reducing the price discrepancy between Java and outside Java. The shake up should transform Ditlala to a more powerful institution inside the ministry or even established as a special agency directly under the president.

 Second note, to give more thrust to the “boring” domestic maritime affairs, after 100 days, Subianto must be actively engaged with port development issues especially when travelling overseas to meet international investors. Up to now, no media records available that showcase Indonesian presidents discuss port development investment with their foreign counterparts. During the constructions of Kuala Tanjung port in North Sumatra province and Kalibaru terminal in Jakarta (considerably the biggest projects of the time that were worth trillions of rupiah), for instance, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was not reckoned to introduce the projects to the international community while visiting the world’s financial centers. Even, during the recent trip to New Delhi, Prabowo himself made no statement on port investment whereas one of the host country conglomerates, Adani Group, reportedly wanted to develop Sabang port.

 In Indonesia’s port business practice, the port corporation, i.e., Pelindo, initiates any massive development project and promotes it to the potential partners itself. The president never takes part in the activity except for inaugurating it after the completion. For comparison, when Tanjung Pelepas in Johor Bahru was being developed in 1990s Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad offered the project to multinational shipping players like Evergreen, Maersk among others. A port is a strategic, critical infrastructure to its host country. Many countries therefore put on the political cloak on it when it comes to its development usually by involving their top leaders (president and prime minister) to attract global investment. Believe it or not, such treatment in the next turn can push the port performance in front of the international users. This happened at Tanjung Pelepas port. With Dr. M involvement since its beginning, the port currently is among the best container terminal in the world

Hopefully Prabowo is willing to start a new beginning in that kind of diplomacy during his tenure. There are a lot of port development projects in Pelindo planning list requiring his “cloak” to make it successfully executed.