| Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia | |
Jokowi congratulates president-elect Trump
Jakarta Post - November 10, 2016
Jokowi added Indonesia was ready to continue working with the US in a mutually beneficial relationship.
"I invite the US president-elect to continue cooperating to build world peace and prosperity," he added during a visit to nearby Tangerang in Banten. The US is among the five largest investors in Indonesia.
International relations expert Dewi Fortuna Anwar said the outcome of this year's US election could not have been in greater contrast to Barack Obama's win in 2008.
The election of Obama as the first black president who believed that the US should work in partnership with other countries to deal with global problems produced a worldwide euphoria of a more benign US as a global power, she said.
"Now the whole world is stunned and cannot yet reconcile to the idea that Donald Trump has won the presidency," Dewi told The Jakarta Post.
Scenes of such candid stupor were evident during Wednesday's election results countdown event held in the @america complex, home of the sociocultural arm of the US Embassy in Jakarta.
Scores of local and foreign media outlets, as well as Jakarta-based American diplomats and analysts, waited ardently for the final tally to appear live on-screen on CNN, before giving way to a lull when Trump had secured 245 out of the 270 votes needed from the electoral college to win. He finally gained 276 votes.
By midday, most US Embassy staffers had left the event, the big screen was turned off and people were scurrying home with an almost obvious sense of devastation that Trump had all but won the race to the White House.
One Indonesian diplomat at the scene raised the great task ahead in formulating a workable foreign policy stance for the Trump administration, which throughout his campaign had so often irked Indonesia's Muslim-majority population.
In the meantime, firebrand legislator Fadli Zon posted a congratulatory tweet alongside a selfie he took with Trump during their meeting in New York early last year, which sparked controversy among civil society groups and watchdogs.
Fadli and former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto were reported to the House ethics council for allegedly endorsing Trump's campaign. Both got off with a light warning.
Antara on Wednesday quoted international relations lecturer Teuku Rezasyah as suggesting that the Trump administration would likely be "interested in making investments in [Indonesia's] infrastructure, including air, land and sea ports, especially investments that have potential to lessen the influence of [China] in Southeast Asia".
The AFP meanwhile quoted China's President Xi Jinping as saying, "I highly value China-US relations, and look forward to working together with you and holding fast to mutual respect and nonconflict, nonconfrontation."
From Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered "heartfelt congratulations": "Japan and the United States are unshakable allies connected by common values such as freedom, democracy, basic human rights and rule of law."
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that "Mr. Trump's success shows that politicians should never take voters for granted."
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that like Brexit, Trump's victory reflects "a deep frustration with the way things are" in the West "and a strong wish to reassert a sense of identity and somehow to change the status quo".
The spokesman of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Duterte "looks forward to working with the incoming administration for enhanced Philippine-US relations anchored on mutual respect, mutual benefit and shared commitment to democratic ideals and the rule of law", the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/11/10/jokowi-congratulates-president-elect-trump.html.
See also:
 |