Jokowi’s ‘Charlie’s Angels’
‘Time to go to work, angels’ – and two Indonesian women ministers did just that, very effectively, at the G20 summit in bali.
INDONESIA could pride itself on carving out a piece of history after hosting the Group of 20 Leaders’ Summit in Bali earlier this month that saw members of the world’s 20 largest economies, against all odds, accept a declaration at the meeting’s conclusion.
While Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo reaped international plaudits for the success, the historic achievement has underlined the pivotal role of two women Cabinet ministers. Some of the male ministers involved in the summit tried to steal the show by issuing press statements, but they simply aimed to tell the public they had worked hard too.
Certainly, those male ministers deserve credit, but many would agree the role Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati played was pivotal in helping Jokowi accomplish his mission. The two women ministers remind me of the tough, skilful and charming Charlie’s Angels, who always get things done. While in the TV series and movies of the same name Charlie has three angels, Jokowi only needs two. “It’s Charlie, Angels. Time to go to work,” is the famous line when the angels get a case.
Woman power
In preparing the Bali summit, Retno worked closely with her friend of 43 years, Sri Muyani, almost throughout the year. The plan nearly collapsed after Russia, a G20 member, invaded Ukraine in February. Another scare came in the last minutes of the Bali meeting when the leaders of the world’s
seven richest nations demanded the G20 issue a harsher condemnation of Russia.
But, eventually, everybody accepted Indonesia’s compromise draft declaration. US President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, representing President Vladimir Putin, did not raise any objections.
“We did it. A mission impossible accomplished,” Retno texted in a Whatsapp message to me after Jokowi closed the two-day summit on Nov 16.
When Jokowi handed over the gavel of the G20 presidency to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the closing ceremony, Sri Mulyani was seen hugging Retno and leaning her head against her friend.
According to Sri Mulyani, the G20 Summit was an extraordinary historic achievement for Indonesia: “Although there were very difficult debates, in the end the G20 leaders agreed that war [in Ukraine] should be stopped because it is causing huge losses of life as well losses for
the global economy,” she said after the summit concluded.
Perhaps it was the chemistry that had brewed long before they joined the Cabinet that helped the two women form a well-knit team. While the G20 summit was in Sri Mulyani’s economics and finance domain, it owed its success to Indonesia’s astute diplomacy, which is Retno’s turf.
Retno, who has served as Jokowi’s chief diplomat since 2014, was responsible for the “Sherpa track”. As stated at the G20 website, “the G20 Sherpa is a direct extension of the Head of State/head of Government who will discuss various non-financial issues and discuss financial issues to be input in the preparation of the Leaders’ Declaration”.
Retno and her team led lengthy discussions, moving through paragraph by paragraph, word by word, to accommodate everyone’s wishes and get an agreement of the declaration text. They worked on the text for months, with the article on Ukraine being the toughest.
During the Finance Ministers
Meeting in Bali in July, Sri Mulyani warned that failure to reach a consensus “could be catastrophic for low-income countries amid soaring food and energy prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine”.
She promised that Indonesia would be an honest broker and find creative solutions to overcome the “triple threat of surging commodities prices, global inflation and war”.
Her track record as a World Bank managing director for six years, and her uncompromising stance against political and business interests influence in Indo-nesia were perhaps the key to convincing the G20 leaders to finally reach a consensus.
Executing a vision
The friendship between Retno and Sri Mulyani dates back to their teenage years when they went to the same state senior high school in Semarang, Central Java.
After graduating, Retno studied international relations at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, while Sri Mulyani chose economics at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta.
Jokowi reunited them when, in 2016, he appointed Sri Mulyani as his Finance Minister, a post she had previously held from 2005 until she gave it up in 2010, an exceptionally tumultuous year for Indonesia.
After winning his second term in 2019, Jokowi maintained both Retno and Sri Mulyani as his chief diplomat and treasurer respectively.
Some of Retno’s seniors and former bosses were often heard to criticise her for “a lack of vision”. But Jokowi, from the very beginning, told his ministers that only the president has the vision and mission, while ministers are responsible for implementing them.
The G20 Summit clearly showed how Retno and Sri Mulyani, as well as other Indonesian ministers, were stretched to the limit to execute what the president wanted, and they just made it.
The challenge, however, did not end as the summit’s curtain was lowered. Former foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda warned there was an absolute need to realise what has been agreed in Bali.
“If what was discussed and agreed upon is not followed up, then people might say, ‘Oh, the G20 is dysfunctional’,” the veteran diplomat was quoted as saying in The Jakarta Post.
Both Retno and Sri Mulyani proved their mettle during the G20 Summit, which will be remembered as an event held to restore the world’s peace and growth.
Indonesia hosted the G20 Summit on a predominantly Hindu island. Next year the summit will be hosted by India, a predominantly Hindu nation. Hopefully, more concrete and substantial progress will be achieved there.
And between now and the next G20 Summit is another phase of “Time to go to work” for the angels Retno and Sri Mulyani. – The Jakarta Post/asia News Network