Intertwine between Technology and Diplomacy: Indonesian E-Diplomacy in Achieving Palestinian Independence

Abstract

The advancement of technology has been very useful for many aspects of human life including diplomacy. This paper addresses how twitter as an example of technology intertwine with diplomacy particularly Indonesia e-diplomacy towards Palestinian issue. The Palestinian problem occupies the focus of Indonesia's foreign policy, as stated by the country’s foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, “Palestine will always be in theheart of Indonesia’s foreign policy”. Along with the increasing use of social media as a tool of diplomacy by world leaders, this article examines how intense Indonesian government utilize the proPalestinian e-diplomacy. This study uses an open source program to filter, analyze and visualize the Tweet of Indonesian people using the word 'Palestina' and conduct manual observations of 3 particular accounts: @ Menlu_RI, @Kemlu_RI, and @Jokowi. The data interpretation follows the discourse analysis procedure. This study suggest Indonesian government has not enhance its power in diplomacy using the social media platform, especially Twitter, to influence the policies and attitudes of other governments in the issue of Palestine.