Ambassador McCarthy ends 'satisfying' four years in RI<\/p>\n
By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): For four years John McCarthy has been
\nAustralia's most senior representative in Indonesia, overseeing
\nan often precarious relationship which in his time has reached
\nboth ends of the extreme.<\/p>\n
This months he returns home at least in the knowledge that
\nties between Jakarta and Canberra, albeit not at its peak, is on
\na positive upward trend.<\/p>\n
\"At the end of the day I've had a satisfying four years here,
\nI can go with any complaints,\" McCarthy said in a farewell
\ninterview with The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
\"It's one of these big countries that becomes more complex the
\nlonger you stay here,\" he said describing Indonesia.<\/p>\n
When he first arrived in the country no one could have
\npredicted what was in store for McCarthy. In fact, at the time,
\nno one could have foreseen the turn of events for the whole
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
He has gone through three presidents, two eras -- New Order
\nand Reform -- and one crisis after another.<\/p>\n
During the initial phase of his arrival here it was the
\nSoeharto era \"at full play\". Not long after it moved into the
\nmonetary crisis, political turmoil, the B.J. Habibie era and now
\nfor the past year the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid.<\/p>\n
As McCarthy puts it, \"you're dealing with a whole new world\".<\/p>\n
As a consequence the approach to diplomacy too has changed.<\/p>\n
\"The way one operates as a diplomat has changed, in that there
\nis now a need to concentrate on more diffuse centers of power in
\nIndonesia. In 1997 the main emphasis was really on the presidency
\nand ministries, and to some degree the Indonesian Military
\n(TNI),\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"You now have more power going to the regions, parliament, the
\npress and business is beginning to reactivate ... which means
\neverybody's busy\".<\/p>\n
The advent of the reform era in particular has brought a new
\ndimension in the relationship.<\/p>\n
\"In a sense it should logically mean that there is less
\ndifference between our two systems then was the case before. You
\nare now embarked on your own democratic road and hence the
\nAustralian perception of authoritarianism in Indonesian which
\nused to be a problem should diminish\".<\/p>\n
\"I think that is a plus ... Equally however you now have many
\ndifferent opinions in Indonesia and everybody is free to express
\ntheir opinions. And sometimes you will get things said about
\nAustralia, or other countries, by different parts of the
\ncommunity\".<\/p>\n
\"(But) I think we can deal with that\".<\/p>\n
When talking to McCarthy one cannot escape the subject of the
\ncontinuous swing in the pendulum of ties between Indonesia and
\nAustralia.<\/p>\n
After several years of very amiable ties in the early to mid-
\n1990s, the bottom simply fell out in 1999. The East Timor issue,
\nwhich has always been a very precarious dimension to the
\nrelationship, aggravated the matter so much to the point that
\ndemonstrators were burning Australian flags and jumping Embassy
\nwalls.<\/p>\n
Given the frequent ups and downs, are ties between the two
\ncountries thus really built on a strong enough foundation?<\/p>\n
McCarthy seemed realistic: \"It maybe that in the 90s we were a
\nbit euphoric about the relationship about the progress being
\nmade, and now we need to look at a bit more stabler framework
\nwhich will stand the test of time, and I think this is not
\nsomething that can be done quickly\".<\/p>\n
He points out that when two countries are as close as
\nIndonesia and Australia are, there are bound to be uncertainties.<\/p>\n
\"It's easier to have uncertainties between neighbors than
\ndistant countries, regrettably,\" he said while pointing out that
\nEast Timor through the years remained a controversial and often
\nsore point.<\/p>\n
\"I don't think you can discount either what is broadly termed
\nas the cultural factor, which means that you have two countries
\nvery close to each other with very different cultural backgrounds
\nand histories.<\/p>\n
\"And hence I think there can be some sort of quite often
\npublic misunderstandings ... Misunderstandings among the public
\nis probably putting it better\".<\/p>\n
\"All that said, I think the relationship is now on the mend
\nagain although it is not a rapid process,\" he remarked.<\/p>\n
While the East Timor issue can slowly been moved to the
\nbackground \"cultural differences\" in effect will continue to
\nremain a factor for some time to come.<\/p>\n
McCarthy believes that over time this too can be diminished
\nwith the increased people-to-people interaction such as business
\ncontacts, education, mutual visits.<\/p>\n
Oddly when asked about his personal darkest days here as
\nambassador McCarthy ranks the calamitous events of May 1998 as
\nfirst, and only placed the storm of demonstrations and protests
\nbefore and after the East Timor ballot in late 1999 as second.<\/p>\n
\"For everybody it was about May 1998,\" he recalls.<\/p>\n
While it was not easy working at the embassy amid the seeming
\npublic animosity following the East Timor ballot, McCarthy
\nremarked that \"I don't think things were really as bad in terms
\nof treatment to Australians\".<\/p>\n
\"Sure there were demonstrations and so on, but my feeling is
\nthat the stories I heard about Indonesians being mistreated in
\nAustralia or Australians being mistreated in Indonesia nearly
\nalways ended being wrong once investigated.<\/p>\n
\"So I think in large I think that was not so much a difficult
\nperiod as often it seemed from the outside, nonetheless it wasn't
\nstraight forward at all\".<\/p>\n
When asked more bluntly if in his dealings with political
\nelites he may have felt some animosity by some who may have not
\nbeen happy with Australia's role, McCarthy, being the experienced
\ndiplomatic that he is, was cautious at first.<\/p>\n
\"Oh I think it's not universal, it very much depends on whom
\nyou talk to. I don't think one can expect everyone in this
\ncountry to change their views rapidly.<\/p>\n
\"East Timor was a difficult process for some Indonesians to go
\nthrough. Given the prominent role we played you'd expect some
\nresentment from some. We just hope that with time that resentment
\nwill erode,\" he said.<\/p>\n
But after a brief pause, McCarthy added more revealing words:
\n\"that's rather a long way of saying 'reactions have been mixed'\".<\/p>\n
\"I would say this: that right through the crisis most
\nIndonesians were extremely courteous to me and members of my
\nstaff. There was some hostility in some quarters but that was to
\nbe expected\".<\/p>\n
Having gone through and felt much of the trials and
\ntribulations that many of the 210 million in the country have, it
\nis no surprise that anyone would feel some sort of kinship to
\nthis country, not the least McCarthy.<\/p>\n
When asked to take of his diplomatic mantle off and speak a
\nfew parting words, McCarthy cautiously expressed hope for the
\ngrowth of Indonesia's fledging democracy.<\/p>\n
\"While I think democracy can work in Indonesia. I think people
\nneed to understand that it will take time for democratic
\ninstitutions to take hold in the way that you would like them to,
\nbut it is certainly worth persevering in that path.<\/p>\n
\"But in the end these things are not things a foreigner can
\ntell a country. The people have to make up their own mind about
\nhow they want to live in the future\".<\/p>",
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