Ambassadorship

Ambassadorship

"When Washington is awake, I am asleep. And even better when I
am awake, Washington is sleeping" -- Walter Mondale, the U.S.
Ambassador to Japan, tells interestingly of the inherent perks
associated with certain ambassadorial postings.

However, Mr. Allan Robert Taylor, the outgoing Australian
Ambassador to Indonesia, wishes to carry with him images of the
country's beautiful scenery gathered during his travels
throughout the archipelago (The Jakarta Post, June 20, 1996). In
perfect humility, Taylor says: "The good things in the
relationship of the two countries would have happened without
me."

How an Ambassador feels once back in his home country is
vividly portrayed by Sidney Sheldon in his novel Windmills of the
Gods: "An Ambassador arrives in tears (in a foreign country)
because he knows he will be spending years in a foreign place,
away from his friends but when he leaves, he leaves in tears
because he must leave his new friends in a country he has grown
fond of."

Yes, when we meet a stranger, we should leave him as a friend.
An Ambassador does precisely this function for his country.

However, there's one difference with Indonesia. An Ambassador
who is posted to Jakarta does not have to deal with strangers --
on the contrary, he will find the most friendly people he could
ever hope for.

It is not incumbent only upon an Ambassador to foster good
relations between his and the host peoples. Every foreigner is an
unofficial representative of his country and each one, in his own
way, should endeavor to build bridges of goodwill between his
country and the host nation, in addition to establishing
meaningful and friendly relationships with expatriates of other
nationalities.

Any expatriate returning home from Indonesia will no doubt
carry happy memories of his/her life here. But, what makes
Indonesia unique is that the returning expatriate might well
become an unofficial goodwill Ambassador for Indonesia in his
home country.

D. CHANDRAMOULI
Jakarta