JAKARTA - The Fauzan Luthsa Institute Strategy Analyst criticized the government's defense narrative for Indonesia's membership in the Board of Peace (BoP), especially the statements of the Minister of ATR/Head of BPN who is also the Head of the Disaster Management of the MUI Nusron Wahid after the meeting at the Presidential Palace, Thursday, March 5.
According to Fauzan, Nusron consistently uses the same three phrases every time the pressure to retreat is strong: effort, benefit, and an exit is ready. "All three sound like arguments. None of them can be verified," he said, Friday (6/3).
Fauzan assessed that the claim that the BoP is "the only negotiating table that is still active" is not a geopolitical argument, but rather an admission of weakness wrapped up as wisdom.
"If the only reason Indonesia survives is the absence of other options - not because Indonesia has a real influence in it - then the so-called effort is not a strategy. It is a surrender with a more respectable diction," he said.
Furthermore, he highlighted that the BoP is a forum designed, chaired, and controlled by Washington. Trump was even called the chairman for life in its charter. In Fauzan's view, Indonesia is there not as an actor who shapes the agenda, but as a participant who gives the forum legitimacy in the eyes of the Islamic world.
"The world's largest Muslim country sits at Trump's table, and that in itself is useful enough for Washington without Indonesia needing to say anything," he said.
He also questioned the offer of 8,000 stabilization force personnel, which until now has not been realized without clarity of mandate, chain of command, and accountability mechanisms. In military geopolitics, he emphasized, troops without a clear mandate are not a bargaining asset. "They are an unfunded risk," he said.
Criticism has sharpened when highlighting the post-US-Israeli attack on Iran. When the BoP was unable to prevent the largest military escalation in the region in decades - not even issuing a collective statement - the argument that "this forum is the only active one" should have collapsed on its own.
However, the government chose to frame on hold, as if the forum was paused, not proving its irrelevance at the most needed time. Regarding the three conditions for withdrawal promised by Nusron - if the BoP is not beneficial to the Palestinians, it is against national interests, or it is only a tool for legitimizing escalation - Fauzan assessed that there were no indicators or evaluation mechanisms that were set.
"After the attack on Iran, the three conditions can easily be considered fulfilled. Indonesia is still there," he said.
He said Nusron's role in this issue served more as a political bumper - making decisions that have already been made feel like they are not final, so that the public focuses on the debate on when to resign, not on the more fundamental questions.
"What Nusron did was not a defense of policy in the true sense. He did not present data, did not show achievements, did not explain how Indonesia influenced the BoP agenda from within. He just managed perceptions - ensuring the public remained busy debating whether to withdraw, so that the much more dangerous questions never came to the surface: since January 2026, what exactly has changed because of Indonesia's presence there? There is no answer to that question. And it is the absence of an answer that should be of concern." he said.
"Nusron mentioned three conditions for withdrawal. But no one explained who evaluated, when the evaluation was carried out, and with what indicators. After Iran was attacked, after BoP did not issue a single collective statement, the three conditions could actually be considered fulfilled. But Indonesia is still there. It means that the exit is not a door - it is decoration. It is prepared so that the public feels there is a limit, even though no one guarantees that the limit will ever be used. "
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