W

here is Indonesia’s trade policy heading? A. En route to a more inward-looking one; B. Tiptoeing into the
regional trend of free trade deals; C. A combination of A and B; D. Heading into the twilight zone; E. It’s complicated.

With last week’s appointment of a veteran politician with a questionable past and no slight expertise in both domestic and international commerce as a trade minister, it may not be a far-fetched assumption the future trade policy is heading toward the twilight zone — a situation where policies are unclear or confusing.

Let’s first delve into the credentials of Trade Minister Enggartiasto “Enggar” Lukita, 64, a NasDem Party politician who replaced Harvard University-graduate Thomas Lembong, a banker by training.

 For the first time since 1999, Indonesia has an active politician as trade minister. And for the first time in more than a decade, Indonesia has a trade minister with no international business network and who lacks the eloquence in English to sway his international counterparts during trade negotiations.

During president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration, Indonesia had Mari Elka Pangestu and Gita Wirjawan. When they spoke, the international audience was given the “wow” effect, and was mostly inspired by the ministers’ visions of Indonesia.

 Getting back to Enggar, who is he exactly? Well, although he may not be Jokowi’s next-door kind of guy, he was a member of Jokowi’s presidential campaign team in 2014, and is a confidant of NasDem founder Surya Paloh, one of a handful of Jokowi’s early supporters.

Enggar graduated from the English department at the Bandung Teacher Training Institute (now the Indonesian University of Education) and crawled up the national ladder as a real estate and property businessman. His spell in the public limelight started when he served as chairman of the Indonesian Real Estate Association (REI) in the early 1990s.

When the property business was hit hard by the late 1997 Asian financial crisis, Enggar and other property luminaries such as MS Hidayat and Agusman Effendi jumped on the bandwagon, standing for election as legislators in the 1999 general elections.

Enggar went through the House of Representatives, winning re-election on several occasions to serve until 2013 when he jumped ship to NasDem. He spent most of his career as a member of the infrastructure, transportation and communication commissions. He was also a member of the House’s graft-ridden budget committee.

Putting Enggar aside, it is worth noting the landscape of Indonesia’s trade management, particularly as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo often sends contradicting message regarding his priorities.

When Jokowi appointed manufacturing magnate Rachmat Gobel, whose company has a joint venture with Japan’s Panasonic, as trade minister in 2014, the message
was somewhat clear: The administration would be more inward-looking and more protective against foreign trade.

Rachmat seems to have reversed the policies taken by his predecessors. Mari was credited with putting Indonesia on the international radar and initiating a number of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs); Gita for laying the foundation for Indonesia to climb up the value chain and initiate reform at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Muhammad Lutfi, serving only nine months, meanwhile, focused mostly on fixing the domestic flow of goods.

Rachmat put international trade deals on the back burner, but laid out the basis to fixing problems in goods delivery. He started a clamp down on the big shots accused of hoarding and causing volatility in food prices, particularly sugar, shallots, rice, corn and meat.

He also improved and expanded market chains in order to cut out middlemen and accelerate commodity delivery to consumers, thus keeping inflation in check.

But following several blunders, Rachmat was sacked 10 months into his job.

His replacement, Thomas, reversed Rachmat’s policies, pushing Indonesia to going for more FTAs. He commenced Indonesia’s bid to join the US-initiated Trans-Pacific Partnership, and forged a deal with the EU to start negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

While focusing much of his attention on international trade, Thomas lost his grip on domestic affairs. He was blamed for the recent volatility in food prices, although much of the blame should be attributed to mismanagement by Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman — a key member of Jokowi’s campaign team in Sulawesi.

Thomas, deemed by many as too liberal in terms of trade policies, was sacked 11 months into his job.

Enggar, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said, was appointed to tackle domestic issues, particularly on “lowering food prices”, which spiked during the recent fasting month of Ramadhan.

If that serves as an indication, Jokowi may have reversed his trade policies to be more inward-looking. In less than two years, the President has already had three trade ministers with backtracking policies: inward-looking, then to outward then back to inward.

By appointing a politician, the President may as well exacerbate the already poor governance at the ministry, given the many trade licenses, regulations and quotas that are liable to corrupt practices, especially bribery.

Enggar’s poor credentials, coupled with signs that Jokowi seems to have lost his way, have taken Indonesia’s trade policies into the unknown. The problems in trade management are already complicated, and Jokowi is making them even more so.