^^
ok, here's my opinion,
first, ABU isn't popular in
because ABU doesn't have something like ESC (until last year, they started ABU TV Song Festival and ABU Radio Song Contest) . Also, most of the agenda from ABU is for annual meeting and cultural event.
second, the Indonesian broadcasters that have membership in ABU (because it's state owned) are TVRI and RRI. Both broadcasters are lost in competing with non-public broadcasters, from the quality of the show and the rating (how many times do you watch TVRI channel ? If I may ask you
)
third, our non-public broadcasters that have ABU membership, don't have fully membership just like public broadcaster (I don't know the reason). So this situation maybe can be a constrain (from the legal aspect maybe) for the broadcaster itself if they insist doing something related with ATSF or ABU Radio Song Contest.
fourth, Fatin or Novita just finished the x factor in May-June, and they have contract with RCTI (while TVRI is the broadcaster that has responsible to choose our entry). If TVRI insisted to choose between them, they would have some legal-contract issue with RCTI.
and also about the controversy, I don't know either the main reason why TVRI de-selected our last year entry (IMO, it was our first participation, so maybe they thought it was unfair if they selected internally, so they changed it and held a NF last year)