Analysis on Joko Widodo’s APEC Speech

A president, as a leader of a country, needs to deliver speech in international forums to introduce his/her country to the world. Especially to the underdeveloped and developing countries, these forums will be advantageous and need to be put in good use.

Indonesian new President, Mr. Joko Widodo got a chance to deliver a speech in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) – CEO Summit in Beijing, China on November 10, 2014. There are several points that I analyzed by watching his speech, among others;

1.  Talking in front of hundreds of CEOs from many countries, he opened his speech by straightforwardly saying that he is happy to talk about business and investment as well as mentioning that he was also a business man. This could be considered as one way of creating ‘rapport’ or a close and harmonious relationship between the presenter and the audience. Psychologically speaking, people like to talk with other people who are similar to them. Mr. Joko Widodo meant to develop a moment with his audience in which he wanted to share ideas and communicate well.
2. Mr. Joko Widodo continued his presentation by giving a general description about Indonesia as a big nation, such as; the huge number of population, the number of islands, and the wide area of Indonesia. He used comparison in explaining how vast the area of his country by saying: “The picture shows you our map of Indonesia. We have population 240 million and the distance is like from London in UK to Istanbul in Turkey”. When explaining about data or facts, not all audience could imagine it in the same context. By giving comparison as he did, it will help his audience to understand how vast it actually is from Sabang to Merauke.
3. In giving his presentation, Mr. President used a relatively good presentation slide which is in pointers format and not in long sentences. He also used pictures for visualization with short and simple texts which could attract the attention of the audience.

In my opinion, Mr. Joko Widodo as the new president of Indonesia would like to invite as many investors as possible to his country in order to develop the economic condition of Indonesia in the future. He intentionally mentioned “this is your opportunity” several times in between his speech to the audience which can be interpreted as invitation to the CEOs to make investments on some development areas in Indonesia.

He also addressed that he will channel the fuel subsidy to many other sectors such as providing seeds and fertilizers to farmers, providing engine and cold storage for fishermen, irrigation facilities, providing capitals for small medium and micro enterprises in village areas, creating more health and education program, and building infrastructure facilities. This can be considered as his way of providing reasons for his act of increasing Indonesian fuel price, because in the following week he announced the new fuel price nationally.

He also explained some development that would be undertaken in his era of leadership, such as; manufacture, sea toll, mass transportation, power plants, and industrial zone. He mentioned several deficiency and inadequacy that existed in Indonesia such as land acquisition and business permit. I analyzed this as his way of comparing things that happened in the past presidential era with things that he will do as solution to the problem within his leadership era. He said that he will establish a one-stop-service office to process principle business permit which will only require three days of process.

It is contradictive that the Article 28 of Indonesian Law No. 24 year 2009 about Flag, Language, Symbol, and National Anthem of Indonesia clearly written that official speech by President, Vice President, and other state officials, whether it is in country or overseas, must be delivered in Bahasa Indonesia. Even though the President will not get punished by delivering his speech in English, but it still is violating the law.

Although Mr. Joko Widodo addressing his speech in a calm and confident way, but honestly his English is not as fluent as Indonesian former Presidents, such as Ir. Soekarno, Prof. Dr.-Ing. B J Habibie, or Prof. Dr. Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono. My recommendation would be delivering his speech in Bahasa Indonesia in order for his message to be well received by the audience, and and let the professional translators do the translation service for him. Therefore he could be more convincing to the investors.