JakartaPost-Feb 22, 2023

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s one-off suggestion that Indonesia might send a general to pursue military engagement with Myanmar’s junta seemed to be losing traction, those familiar with the matter said on Monday, as the Indonesian Military (TNI) had yet to receive any instructions from its Commander in Chief on the matter. With no word either from the Foreign Ministry and a lack of confirmation from the TNI and the Executive Office of the President (KSP), questions have arisen as to whether Indonesia, as this year’s ASEAN chair, was still considering military engagement as its strategy to address the Myanmar crisis. Jokowi first made the suggestion in a recent interview with a foreign news agency, but it soon became clear that it was an off-the-cuff and not an actual strategy, even as some analysts noted that a military-to-military dialogue might have merit and the idea had a successful precedent. Instead, private conversations over the idea indicates the strategy might have an inherent weakness in, including a notion that Myanmar’s junta regime did not perceive the TNI as a model for how an armed forces should be positioned in relation to government. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2023/02/22/jokowis-myanmar-envoy-idea-loses-steam.html.