Jokowi-Obama and gossip of broker
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, By; Fira Nursyabani
Recently, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) conducted a working visit to the United States (US) to meet President Barack Obama. However, there was a bad news regarding the meeting. It was related to behind the scenes role of a Singapore consulting firm who paid for 80 thousand US dollars or Rp 1.08 billion to a company in Las Vegas. The purpose was to make Indonesian government have opportunity and access to the White House.
The scandal was revealed by Michael Buehler, professor of Southeast Asia Political Science at School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Buehler wrote it in an article titled "Waiting in the White House Lobby" published in New Mandala pages at http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au, Friday (6/11).
Moreover, on Saturday (7/11), Buehler uploaded original document related to the alleged use of broker in the visit of President Jokowi to the White House to meet President Barack Obama. The document was uploaded in Buehler's Facebook account in link http://www.fara.gov/docs/6229-Exhibit-AB-20150617-3.pdf.
He stated, the document clearly mentioned a foreign head of state, in this case was Republic of Indonesia, as a client of a consulting firm. Buehler also reminded readers to read the original article published by him and said that the article was true. "The head of state of the Republic of Indonesia has commissioned consultants as executive representative of the Government of Indonesia," he explained.
Read: Three documents reveals tasks of broker in Jokowi visit to the US
According to him, the Singapore consulting firm was Pereira International Pte Ltd and the Las Vegas PR company was R & R Partner's Inc. Pereira International, said Buehler, was close to Indonesian Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Human Rights, Luhut Panjaitan.
Moreover, Luhut Pandjaitan said he has friendship with a consultant in Singapore and said that Pereira was not a broker. However, he continued that in the United States, lobbyist company was a common thing. "I'm not familiar (with Pereira), just friends, all is friends," he confirmed, Monday (9/11).
In the document revealed by Buehler, there was cooperation agreement with a contract value of 80 thousand US dollars. The agreement was signed by Sean Tonner as President of R & R Partners and Derwin Pereira as representative of Pereira International.
Previously, Buehler wrote, R & R Partners did not have a track record in understanding Indonesian political dynamics. That was because its leaders did not have experience of staying in Indonesia. Different things was happened with Derwin Pereira. He was considered to understand Indonesian political condition. After earning a bachelor degree at London School of Economics in the early 1990s, he worked as a journalist for a newspaper of Singapore, The Straits Times. He served in Indonesia, and when the fall of President Suharto in 1998, he became head of the Bureau.
After that, Pereira was placed in Washington, until then he retreated to set up his own consulting firm. Buehler explained, Pereira prided himself on his "ability to establish contacts at the highest place" and "deep access to the political and business elite in Jakarta and exclusive access to get important information." However, Pereira once wrote and interviewed Luhut Panjaitan to The Straits Times during becoming Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore from 1999 to 2000.
Meanwhile, official website of Pereira in http://www.pereiraintl.com/ was displayed various heads of state. In addition to President Jokowi, there was also President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
On the home page of the website, there was also Vice President Jusuf Kalla and Indonesian Former President Megawati Soekarnoputri. There was also a photograph of five leaders of House of Representatives and even a photo of Luhut Panjaitan.
Another evidence showed in the document of Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) that was downloaded from the official website of The United States Department of Justice with registration number 6229 in the name of R & R Partners Inc. There were three documents about lobbying services performed by R & R Partners Inc. The documents were taken from www.fara.gov/search.html.
The first document, dated 19-6-15, stated Darrin Munoz would serve Pereira International PTE Ltd on behalf of the Government of Indonesia. The services provided, among others, to organize meetings with policy makers, members of the US Congress and executives; and to secure Indonesian opportunity to join in a joint session with the Congress. In addition, the services were also to secure cooperation with leaders, media, mass organizations, and private organizations affiliated with the United States to support interests of Republic of Indonesia.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, By; Fira Nursyabani
The second document, dated 19-6-15, stated Jill Warren would serve Pereira International PTE Ltd on behalf of the Government of Indonesia. The services provided were similar with Darrin Munoz. The third document, dated 19-6-15, stated Sean Tonner would serve Pereira International PTE Ltd on behalf of the Government of Indonesia.The services provided were similar with Darrin Munoz and Jill Warren. Then, the fourth document, dated 30-7-2015, stated R & R Partners provided their services to serve the Government of Sri Lanka and the Government of Sudan. Then, it showed that Indonesia was not the only user of R & R Partners.
Responded to this case, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi, confirmed that all preparations for President Joko Widodo's visit to the United States (US) were through formal and official lane. "I just want to emphasize once again, all preparations for the visit of President Jokowi to the US was made formally and officially. Ministry of Foreign Affairs coordinated the visit with the related ministry and institutions in the US," said Retno in a press conference in Jakarta, Saturday (7/11) afternoon.
The statement was delivered to deny the news that spread about President Jokowi's visit to the US through services of foreign lobbyists. Retno further explained that the early talks of President Jokowi's visit to the US occurred during the APEC summit in Beijing, at the end of 2014.
On the sidelines of the APEC meeting, President Jokowi and President Obama held a bilateral meeting, President Obama invited President Jokowi to visit his country. Following up on the APEC meeting, in March 2015, Assistant of President Obama, Dr. Evan Mediros, conducted a visit to Indonesia to convey the official invitation of President Obama to President Jokowi. Furthermore, President Jokowi replied via letter and stated that Indonesian government welcomed the invitation and would soon organize the visit. President Jokowi also said that he was happy because Indonesian authorities and the US had agreed to determine the date of the visit on 26 October 26 2015. "I chaired the meeting of preparatory visits for three times at the ministerial level on 17th September, 7th October, and 17th October," said Retno.
She also said that the visit of President Jokowi to the US produced some cooperation, such as the signing of a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in maritime, energy, defense, and an alternative aviation fuel, and also 19 business deals worth more than 20 billion US dollars.
However, Buehler lamented Retno's statement that denied the existence of a broker in the meeting between Jokowi and Obama at the White House. Therefore, he had revealed it in his article and even uploaded official documents of the contract with R & R Partner. "Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a press conference related to the articles I wrote. If the Ministry does not know who signed the consultant contract with the lobbyist, then who are they?" he wrote in a status, Saturday (7/11).