🧵From the US to China, many states are trying to woo Indonesia. Just see how many high-profile visitors flew to Jakarta during the pandemic. But few outsiders think about how Indonesians see them. Our new Indonesia poll provides some great insights 1/ interactives.lowyinstitute.org
The first major insight from our nationwide, face-to-face poll of 3,000 Indonesians was that Indonesians feel confident and optimistic about the direction of their country but are wary of great powers, the US and China, & don't see the world through lens of binary geopolitics 2/
Indonesians' trust in major powers to act responsibly has fallen across the board since our last poll a decade ago. That goes for the US and China, but also Japan, Australia and India. But levels of trust in Indonesia, plus neighbours Singapore and Vietnam have remained stable 3/
When it comes to confidence in global leaders to do the right thing, we see a more diverse picture. Indonesians have more trust in Jokowi than any other leader. This is not what we've found elsewhere. Most people have a higher level of distrust towards their own leaders 4/
Other big surprise was MBS of Saudi Arabia & MBZ of the UAE as most trusted non-Indonesian leaders. Jokowi has courted both men as key investment partners. Biden is relatively well trusted alongside Kishida & Lee Hsien Loong, while Xi is at the back w/ Kim & Min Aung Hlaing 5/
Although our survey was conducted in December 2021 (before the Ukraine invasion), it's interesting that Putin comes out somewhere in the middle in terms of overall confidence, ahead of Scott Morrison, Narendra Modi and Rodrigo Duterte. 6/
Our poll shows Indonesians have confidence in many world leaders who are unelected/authoritarian. Unlike many in the West, Indonesians do not see the rest of the world in black & white terms. But they still strongly value their own democracy at home, amid fears of backsliding 7/
This is one of many contradictions we see. Humans cannot be easily categorised. Indonesians view different countries through different lenses for different reasons. Some Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia do v well on some measures, here topping the feelings thermometer 8/
But when we ask which foreign countries Indonesians would most like to study or work in, Japan, the US and South Korea come out top, and important Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt don't get traction 9/
We also asked which foreign pop cultures people most enjoyed, trying to see how much soft power other countries have in Indonesia. This was one of the few measures where India came out favourably, perhaps reflecting the popularity of Bollywood in Indonesia 10/
There are many more fascinating insights in the poll so do have a look through the interactive page, where you can also download the PDF if you're a 🦖like me. I hope to write another thread on what we found about the US and China in the next few days. END interactives.lowyinstitute.org
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