Alatas urges RI diplomats to be more articulate

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)