Alatas urges RI diplomats to be more articulate

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas urged Indonesian diplomats yesterday to be more articulate in defending the country's interests instead of simply reporting on criticism hurled at Indonesia.

"Our diplomats should not just be reactive," Alatas said here yesterday afternoon.

Speaking to journalists, Alatas elaborated on statements he made on Friday that Indonesia needs new unconventional approaches in diplomacy and to improve its abilities to inform the world of its position in the face of increased global challenges.

He pointed out East Timor, an issue which regularly generates adverse publicity for the country.

"If there are unfavorable things written about Indonesia on the issue of East Timor don't just report on it, but respond to it right away by forwarding a counter."

The role of Indonesian foreign policy has been criticized, particularly by members of the House of Representatives, for being reactive.

Legislators complain about the fact that Indonesia is often overly silent in responding to criticism from abroad, particularly over the East Timor issue.

The former Portuguese colony of East Timor became Indonesia's 27th province in 1976. The United Nations, however, still recognizes Lisbon as the administrative power there and categorizes East Timor as a non-self-determining territory.

At the opening of a photo exhibition on 50 years of Indonesian diplomacy on Friday, Alatas strongly encouraged approaches which develop arguments and ideas to rebuff accusations from abroad.

"In other words, a more assertive and proactive attitude is demanded from our diplomacy by leaving behind our habits of being silent and avoiding defensive, reactive diplomacy," Alatas said.

He acknowledged that such an attitude was not easy to adopt. The motive behind his call for a more assertive proactive role, he said, was a combination of both the challenges of global change and the diplomats' own lack of assertiveness in the past.

"At times I do have to keep pushing our diplomats to become more active," Alatas remarked.

He has often personally responded or rebuffed press articles which he considers untrue or groundless concerning himself or Indonesia.

Earlier this year Alatas responded to a column by Fretilin separatist leader Ramos Horta in the Far Eastern Economic Review, which attributed Alatas' failure to become UN Secretary General to the East Timor issue.

Alatas, a former journalist, responded that Horta was "dreaming in the daylight."

Apart from articulating Jakarta's position, the foreign minister yesterday also urged the country's foreign policy practitioners and thinkers to actuate a role for Indonesia in the post-Cold War era.

He stressed the importance of not just analyzing a world undergoing political transformation, but also the need to interpret the role Indonesia can play in such a world.

"I would like our diplomats and those who are at home, rather than analyzing, become proactive and project Indonesia's role in it and then to express those ideas," he said.

According to Alatas, new challenges facing Indonesia are now coming from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) and thus efforts must also be directed to anticipate them.

"The fact that NGOs now play an increased role throughout the world, not just Indonesia, is a new symptom in the international sphere," he said.

Meanwhile the foreign ministry yesterday also issued a statement expressing its grief over the death of United States' Special Envoy to the former Yugoslavia, Robert Frasure, who died in a vehicle accident on the way to Sarajevo.

"The Indonesian government notes that they died while they were serving the cause of peace," the statement read.(mds)