Ambassador McCarthy ends 'satisfying' four years in RI

Ambassador McCarthy ends 'satisfying' four years in RI

By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

JAKARTA (JP): For four years John McCarthy has been
Australia's most senior representative in Indonesia, overseeing
an often precarious relationship which in his time has reached
both ends of the extreme.

This months he returns home at least in the knowledge that
ties between Jakarta and Canberra, albeit not at its peak, is on
a positive upward trend.

"At the end of the day I've had a satisfying four years here,
I can go with any complaints," McCarthy said in a farewell
interview with The Jakarta Post.

"It's one of these big countries that becomes more complex the
longer you stay here," he said describing Indonesia.

When he first arrived in the country no one could have
predicted what was in store for McCarthy. In fact, at the time,
no one could have foreseen the turn of events for the whole
country.

He has gone through three presidents, two eras -- New Order
and Reform -- and one crisis after another.

During the initial phase of his arrival here it was the
Soeharto era "at full play". Not long after it moved into the
monetary crisis, political turmoil, the B.J. Habibie era and now
for the past year the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid.

As McCarthy puts it, "you're dealing with a whole new world".

As a consequence the approach to diplomacy too has changed.

"The way one operates as a diplomat has changed, in that there
is now a need to concentrate on more diffuse centers of power in
Indonesia. In 1997 the main emphasis was really on the presidency
and ministries, and to some degree the Indonesian Military
(TNI)," he said.

"You now have more power going to the regions, parliament, the
press and business is beginning to reactivate ... which means
everybody's busy".

The advent of the reform era in particular has brought a new
dimension in the relationship.

"In a sense it should logically mean that there is less
difference between our two systems then was the case before. You
are now embarked on your own democratic road and hence the
Australian perception of authoritarianism in Indonesian which
used to be a problem should diminish".

"I think that is a plus ... Equally however you now have many
different opinions in Indonesia and everybody is free to express
their opinions. And sometimes you will get things said about
Australia, or other countries, by different parts of the
community".

"(But) I think we can deal with that".

When talking to McCarthy one cannot escape the subject of the
continuous swing in the pendulum of ties between Indonesia and
Australia.

After several years of very amiable ties in the early to mid-
1990s, the bottom simply fell out in 1999. The East Timor issue,
which has always been a very precarious dimension to the
relationship, aggravated the matter so much to the point that
demonstrators were burning Australian flags and jumping Embassy
walls.

Given the frequent ups and downs, are ties between the two
countries thus really built on a strong enough foundation?

McCarthy seemed realistic: "It maybe that in the 90s we were a
bit euphoric about the relationship about the progress being
made, and now we need to look at a bit more stabler framework
which will stand the test of time, and I think this is not
something that can be done quickly".

He points out that when two countries are as close as
Indonesia and Australia are, there are bound to be uncertainties.

"It's easier to have uncertainties between neighbors than
distant countries, regrettably," he said while pointing out that
East Timor through the years remained a controversial and often
sore point.

"I don't think you can discount either what is broadly termed
as the cultural factor, which means that you have two countries
very close to each other with very different cultural backgrounds
and histories.

"And hence I think there can be some sort of quite often
public misunderstandings ... Misunderstandings among the public
is probably putting it better".

"All that said, I think the relationship is now on the mend
again although it is not a rapid process," he remarked.

While the East Timor issue can slowly been moved to the
background "cultural differences" in effect will continue to
remain a factor for some time to come.

McCarthy believes that over time this too can be diminished
with the increased people-to-people interaction such as business
contacts, education, mutual visits.

Oddly when asked about his personal darkest days here as
ambassador McCarthy ranks the calamitous events of May 1998 as
first, and only placed the storm of demonstrations and protests
before and after the East Timor ballot in late 1999 as second.

"For everybody it was about May 1998," he recalls.

While it was not easy working at the embassy amid the seeming
public animosity following the East Timor ballot, McCarthy
remarked that "I don't think things were really as bad in terms
of treatment to Australians".

"Sure there were demonstrations and so on, but my feeling is
that the stories I heard about Indonesians being mistreated in
Australia or Australians being mistreated in Indonesia nearly
always ended being wrong once investigated.

"So I think in large I think that was not so much a difficult
period as often it seemed from the outside, nonetheless it wasn't
straight forward at all".

When asked more bluntly if in his dealings with political
elites he may have felt some animosity by some who may have not
been happy with Australia's role, McCarthy, being the experienced
diplomatic that he is, was cautious at first.

"Oh I think it's not universal, it very much depends on whom
you talk to. I don't think one can expect everyone in this
country to change their views rapidly.

"East Timor was a difficult process for some Indonesians to go
through. Given the prominent role we played you'd expect some
resentment from some. We just hope that with time that resentment
will erode," he said.

But after a brief pause, McCarthy added more revealing words:
"that's rather a long way of saying 'reactions have been mixed'".

"I would say this: that right through the crisis most
Indonesians were extremely courteous to me and members of my
staff. There was some hostility in some quarters but that was to
be expected".

Having gone through and felt much of the trials and
tribulations that many of the 210 million in the country have, it
is no surprise that anyone would feel some sort of kinship to
this country, not the least McCarthy.

When asked to take of his diplomatic mantle off and speak a
few parting words, McCarthy cautiously expressed hope for the
growth of Indonesia's fledging democracy.

"While I think democracy can work in Indonesia. I think people
need to understand that it will take time for democratic
institutions to take hold in the way that you would like them to,
but it is certainly worth persevering in that path.

"But in the end these things are not things a foreigner can
tell a country. The people have to make up their own mind about
how they want to live in the future".