That’s rather silly. The FAA allowed those planes to fly in the US, with the flaws that lead to those deaths. They also manipulated test results in order to facilitate recertification of the planes after the crashes.

Doesn't count in their favor:

"FAA safety engineer goes public to slam the agency’s oversight of Boeing’s 737 MAX"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26376549

Indonesia has a bilateral agreement for airworthiness with the FAA[1].

[1] - https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/international/bilatera...

It oversaw and did their type certification, which per treaties is the basis on which they operate in many parts of the world.

Have you even read one article about how 737 got its air worthiness certification?

The FAA's reputation in other countries is an example of soft power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_power

And because of that the FAA was entirely right to type-certify the 737 MAX (which through international agreements is widely recognized) and it's just totally random that they after the crashes grounded them and required lengthy rework?