Jakarta. Newly-installed President Prabowo Subianto wants to make Indonesia everybody’s friend, but Jakarta’s friendliness does not mean it will ignore colonialism that is taking place on the planet.

Prabowo delivered his inaugural speech as Indonesia’s eighth president at the national legislature complex in Jakarta on Sunday morning. Speaking before the audience which included world leaders, Prabowo unveiled how he would manage Indonesia’s foreign policy. According to the 73-year-old politician, Indonesia will stick to its free and active foreign policy. Southeast Asia’s largest economy also still has no plans to join any military pacts.

“I have always said that Indonesia wants to be a ‘good neighbor’ in its foreign policy. … We will adopt the old philosophy of ‘having a thousand friends is too few, one enemy is too many’,” Prabowo said.

The former army general added: “We wish to be good friends with all countries, but we will embrace the principle of anti-colonialism. … We are against oppression because we have been oppressed before.”

Indonesia was under Dutch colonial rule for hundreds of years, and eventually got occupied by Japan for over three and a half years. Because of this, Indonesia knows what it feels like to be in the shoes of oppressed countries. According to Prabowo, traces of Dutch colonialism even remained years after Indonesia declared its independence in 1945. Prabowo recalled how he saw a board that read “honden en inlander verboden” -- the Dutch for “dogs and native Indonesians are prohibited” -- when visiting a pool in Manggarai back in his military days in 1978.

“We were even seen lower than dogs [in the past]. … That is why we have that solidarity principle. We have to defend the oppressed, and that is why we support Palestinian independence,” Prabowo said passionately.

Prabowo then talked about what Indonesia under the previous Joko “Jokowi” Widodo government had done for Palestinians, including the distribution of logistics aid. Indonesia has partnered with the United Arab Emirates to send their medical workers to treat wounded Palestinians. 

“Indonesia stands ready to deploy more [logistics aid], and evacuate those injured and the traumatized children. We will prepare all hospitals, including the military ones, to help our brothers and sisters who are victims of the unfair war,” Prabowo said. 

Prabowo's speech revealed that Indonesia would continue its resource nationalism -- an economic policy that has ruffled the feathers of the European Union (EU). The policy sees Indonesia banning exports of unprocessed nickel ores -- and eventually other commodities -- in favor of processing these resources domestically.

In the past, Jokowi had said that exports of raw materials were a practice that dated back to the colonial era and had been detrimental to the economy as Indonesia lost countless economic opportunities from exporting higher-value goods. Prabowo also wrapped up his nearly hour-long speech with another affirmation of Indonesia’s anti-colonialism stance.

“We do not want to disturb other nations, but we also do not allow any nation to disturb us,” Prabowo said.

A number of world leaders, including Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong, also flew to Jakarta to see Prabowo’s inauguration in person. Timor Leste's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao was also in attendance. 

World leaders who skipped the inauguration -- and sent representatives instead -- had begun sending their congratulatory messages. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote that he “looks forward to continuing to strengthen the partnership” between both nations in a social media post uploaded shortly after Prabowo’s inauguration. Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Sunday that China’s President Xi Jinping had also congratulated Prabowo on the start of his presidency.

“Xi also expressed willingness to maintain close strategic communication with Prabowo to guide the building of a China-Indonesia community with a shared future to a higher level,” Xinhua wrote.

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