Crafting consensus: Indonesia’s discursive strategies in legitimising free trade policy

ABSTRACT

Despite its emphasis on trade, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has been perceived as a liberalisation agenda motivated primarily by strategic concerns with fewer economic benefits. This article analyses the strategies of Indonesia's trade policymakers to legitimize its leading role in RCEP. It is argued that Indonesia's legitimation strategy is implemented through the invocation of two discourses: Indonesia's historical position as a regional leader and bridge-builder and the internationalisation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). While the former is utilised as a coordinative discourse to provide an overarching vision for other state agencies with a protectionist bent, the latter is employed as a communicative discourse to challenge domestic contestations, especially those from civil society and business interests. This article contributes to the study of trade policy discourse by investigating the role of policymakers in mobilising discourses as a strategy for legitimising a strategically-driven liberalisation agenda.

KEYWORDS:

• RCEP
• trade policy
• legitimation
• discourse
• Indonesia
• foreign policy
• political economy

Acknowledgement

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the reviewers for their insightful comments and constructive feedback, which have significantly contributed to the improvement of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Binus International Research Grant 2023 No. 029/VRRT/III/2023.

Notes on contributors

Moch Faisal Karim

Moch Faisal Karim is a senior lecturer within Department of International Relations, Bina Nusantara University. His research has been published in International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis, Third World Quarterly, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Pacific Review, Asian Journal of Social Science, Journal of Current of Southeast Asia Affairs, European Journal of East Asian Studies, International Area Studies Review, and Journal of International Migration and Integration. He is currently an editor of Journal of ASEAN Studies (JAS). He is fellow at Center of Muslim Politics and World Society (COMPOSE), Faculty of Social Sciences, Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia

Sherina Putri

Sherina Putri is a research associate within Trade Cluster at the Centre for Business and Diplomatic Studies (CBDS), Bina Nusantara University. Her research interest lies the political economy of regional trade integration.