Challenges to Indonesian foreign policy

By Ali Alatas

This is the first of two articles based on a presentation by the former minister of foreign affairs at the Aksara Foundation, which focuses on the development of an interactive civil society. The function was held on March 23.

JAKARTA: As we progress into the new century, Indonesia is being confronted with a host of daunting and complex challenges.

I should like to distinguish between two types of challenges: those of a global nature, affecting not only Indonesia's foreign policy and diplomacy, but the international community in general; and those specifically being faced by our country.

In the first category, I would like to discuss with you two international phenomena which the world community will have to grapple with for many years to come: globalization and the evolving concept called "humanitarian intervention".

Today, globalization, especially in its economic context, is a reality and no country is immune to its impact.

We have also come to acknowledge that globalization is by no means a sinister force, devised and wielded as an economic weapon by certain advanced countries against the developing world, but rather a natural development driven by the tremendous scientific and technological advances of recent years and, hence, inescapable.

However, while not being an evil force, it is nevertheless a blind force, incapable of distinguishing between the rich, industrialized countries and poor developing countries, between the strong and the weak and between one region and another.

Thus, globalization has opened up tremendous opportunities for economic progress and for creating wealth, but its rewards have gone mostly to the stronger economies, those that are best equipped to avail themselves of the opportunities.

Yet it has also posed a wide range of challenges and risks to the vulnerable developing economies. Even the more dynamic among them, like those of East and Southeast Asia, those that have managed to integrate themselves into the global economy, through judicious macroeconomic policies and painstaking structural adjustments, have seen their development gains achieved over the decades crumble in the span of a few weeks.

This was the devastating experience of the so-called Asian financial crisis, which was neither only Asian nor purely financial in nature.

For as is now being conceded, the monetary/financial hurricane that lashed out at the economies of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea and Hong Kong in 1997 had its causes not only in the acknowledged, internal shortcomings and weaknesses of the affected economies, but also in the adverse consequences of irresistible globalization in the international monetary and financial fields, the rapid, uncontrollable movements of enormous amounts of capital in and especially out of open economies and speculative trading in currencies.

And the fact that the crisis was particularly harsh precisely on those economies that were fully liberalizing their capital accounts, has provided a valuable lesson and an unmistakable warning to other developing countries.

The central challenge before the international community therefore -- to which Indonesian diplomacy must also contribute its active share in overcoming it -- is to tackle the root causes of this crisis and to institute collective measures to prevent their reoccurrence.

We should first find mutually acceptable ways to effectively regulate the international money markets so as to make them more transparent and predictable.

It may also be necessary to establish an international mechanism to mitigate the adverse effects of globalization and to ensure that the opportunities it offers are equitably available to all economies.

Such a mechanism should include the capacity for monitoring and surveillance of capital markets and international financial operations. In fact, we already have such a mechanism in the field of international trade: the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Thus, there is no reason why we cannot have a similar mechanism in the financial and monetary fields, if it means the difference between order and chaos in the global economy.

For these purposes, the convening of an international conference on money and finance and, at the very least, the launch of an in-depth study and review of the workings of the world monetary and financial system from the perspective of the requirements of development has become an urgent necessity.

Second, and more generally, the international community needs to seriously address the challenge of how to harness the tremendous force of globalization and enlist it in the fight against poverty and for equitable economic progress in the world.

Above all, we must find the means to eliminate or at least ameliorate its adverse aspects so that it will not wreak havoc on vulnerable developing economies and so that the enjoyment of its benefits can be shared by all.

And for this, the only adequate answer I can think of is for us to work for the establishment of a global governance that will match the potency and implications of globalization.

A new, global partnership needs to be nurtured, based on equity, common interest, mutual benefit and shared responsibility. It should be a partnership that by necessity has to be channeled through the central instrumentality of a reformed, democratized and fully empowered United Nations.

We live in a world replete with new challenges and new opportunities, but also a world of old conflicts, often in new forms and guises.

The turbulent events in Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and most recently in Kosovo and East Timor have brought up in sharp relief the dilemma posed by what has been called "humanitarian intervention", or namely, on the one hand, the question of legitimacy of an action taken by a group of countries or a regional organization without a United Nations mandate and, on the other hand, the recognized necessity to effectively put an end to humanitarian catastrophe in certain countries, caused by or as a result of massive and systematic violations of human rights.

The UN Secretary-General, in presenting his annual report on the work of the organization to the General Assembly on Sept. 20, specifically raised the issue, thus sparking an international debate.

Indeed, this question of humanitarian intervention may well prove to be one of the major challenges for the U.N. and the international community at large in the years to come. By definition, it will be a major challenge to Indonesian diplomacy as well.

While nobody can deny the imperative to stop massive and systematic violations of human rights causing human tragedies, the risks intervention poses are equally clear: it could set dangerous precedents for future interventions if done without clear criteria or guidelines as to how, when and by whom to intervene in this manner.

Therefore, if humanitarian intervention is to be accepted as a new norm in international relations, it must always be based on the principles of legitimacy and of universal applicability, or nondiscrimination.

It must be -- and be seen to be -- justly and consistently applied, irrespective of which country or region are affected.