The Role of Policy Entrepreneurs in Indonesia's Foreign Policy
Date
2018
Authors
Adriansyah, Yasmi
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Canberra, ACT : The Australian National University
Abstract
This thesis is primarily concerned with how and why policy
entrepreneurs succeed in promoting their ideas or policy
proposals. In examining this, the thesis uses the case of
Indonesia’s foreign and domestic policies regarding the
protection of its own migrant workers who work abroad,
particularly with the ratification of the 1990 United Nations
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of Their Families (CMW). There are three central
questions that this thesis examines: (1) To what extent were the
policy entrepreneurs important in shaping or playing roles in
Indonesia’s foreign policy regarding the protection of its
migrant workers and who were the main policy entrepreneurs?; (2)
How did these policy entrepreneurs attempt to ensure that their
policy proposals were adopted or their ideas heard?; and (3) Why
were the policy entrepreneurs successful in promoting their
ideas?
The thesis argues that the protection of Indonesian migrant
workers has become a pressing issue in the context of nation’s
foreign and domestic policies. This can be seen from the decision
of Indonesia’s Kementerian Luar Negeri (Ministry of Foreign
Affairs) in 2002 to establish a special directorate to address
the issue, namely the Directorate for the Protection of
Indonesian Citizens and Legal Agencies. Nonetheless, despite the
establishment of this directorate, protection from this
institution was still viewed as relatively poor since there were
still numerous high-profile cases involving Indonesian migrant
workers in cases related to torture and even some resulting in
death. Recent policies developments, spurred by increasing
democratisation, can be viewed as an improvement. This is
demonstrated by Indonesia’s decision to ratify the CMW in 2012.
With regard to this important decision, my empirical analysis
showed that there were at least two categories of policy
entrepreneurs that played important roles in influencing the
decision: key figures operating within the important civil
society organisations who worked under the umbrella movement
People’s Alliance for the Ratification of 1990 Convention
(ARRAK 90) and several elected members of the Dewan Perwakilan
Rakyat (DPR – Indonesia’s House of Representatives).
Overall, the thesis argues that policy entrepreneurs were
successful if: (1) they advocated cogent policy proposals; (2)
these proposals were based on normative principles; and (3) they
promoted their ideas with persistence. Each of these three
factors is examined in the case studies. In testing the notion of
persistence, the thesis measures activities such as: conducting a
series of demonstrations; writing papers; and holding lobbying
luncheons or dinners.
The thesis concludes that there were two success factors that
brought Indonesia’s foreign policy shift from non-ratification
to ratification: coalition-building and advocacy persistence. In
coalition-building, policy entrepreneurs believed that the
emergence of ARRAK 90 significantly transformed the policy
context. Working in coalition, policy entrepreneurs undertook
continuous activities in terms of substantive work,
demonstrations, and lobbying. As the policy context changed and
window of opportunity presented themselves, policy entrepreneurs
demonstrated enormous persistence in presenting their ideas. In
this context, the policy entrepreneurs continuously pushed their
demands, writing to influence public opinion, conducting various
demonstrations for the purpose of raising public awareness,
seizing government attention, and being persistent in demanding
the adoption of their proposals. All these factors, particularly
coalition-building and persistence, answer the primary questions
of this thesis: to what extent were policy entrepreneurs
important in policy change, how did they achieve change, and why
were policy entrepreneurs successful in promoting their policy
proposals?
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Keywords
policy entrepreneur, foreign policy, public policy, Indonesian migrant workers, history of Indonesia's labour migration, Indonesia's foreign policy, UN Convention on Migrant Workers, migrant worker protection, successful policy entrepreneur
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Thesis (PhD)
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