DOMESTIC DIMENSION ON INDONESIAN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Domestic dimensions have started to regain their position on public diplomacy. Their consciousness of national identity, their active role in building relation between citizen andtheir effort in defending particular interest or idea have pushed several governments to put them as their object/target or partner. Besides they may act complementary to or independent from states, sometimes they even challenge the role of the state. Their roles grow fast in globalized world and the emergence ofintermestic issues. In Indonesia-Malaysia bilateral relation, these actors seem to play important roles in coloring the relation and creating dynamic rhythm. This study examines the domestic dimension in Indonesia public diplomacy towards Malaysia. Indepth interview and conversation analysis on newmedia were used in order to gain certain abstraction from action processes or interactions which were held by several actors in Indonesia-Malaysia bilateral relations. The preliminary results of the research show that there are three domestic dimensions which have significant contributions in the relation. Through their background which generates certain perspectives, ideas, and actions, domestic dimensions are presented as an active subject of public diplomacy and no longer play as a passive object. Those domestic dimensionsare: 1) academician and cultural actors, 2) middle class economic actorsand Indonesian temporary migrant workers,3)non government organization and the netizens. Actors with better education and knowledge about the past relation show positive ideas and actions, as well as actors who have direct people-to-people contact. In the other hand, actors with limited information will act negatively in particular issue, especially nationalism or national identities.