Challenges to Indonesian foreign policy

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.