Dewi has Habibie's ear on foreign issues

Dewi has Habibie's ear on foreign issues

By Kornelius Purba

JAKARTA (JP): When President B.J. Habibie stunned the world on
Jan. 27 with his sensational announcement that he was ready to
let East Timor become an independent state, journalists,
politicians and foreign diplomats were busy analyzing Habibie's
real motives and trying to discovering who had influenced the
decision-making process.

The chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Abdurrahman Wahid,
quickly pointed his finger at Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Habibie's
advisor on foreign affairs.

"Pak Habibie listens more to Dewi than Pak Alatas,"
Abdurrahman said of the role of Dewi and Minister of Foreign
Affairs Ali Alatas on the decision.

"My role is quite minimum, I am only an assistant to the state
secretary. I don't think I can influence him (Habibie) very
much," Dewi told The Jakarta Post in an interview at her office
at the State Secretariat on Monday.

Dewi, a PhD holder specializing in foreign affairs, officially
serves as Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung's assistant on
foreign affairs. Dewi previously worked as Habibie's assistant on
global affairs when Habibie became vice president from March to
May last year, before replacing president Soeharto on May 21.

Habibie personally appointed her as his spokeswoman on foreign
affairs. Foreign diplomats and the media appear to find it much
easier to get access to Habibie through Dewi.

Some senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs say
Dewi plays a more dominant role in the ministry, especially on
East Timor affairs since she is one of the 40 member-team to
draft Indonesia's proposal on special autonomy for the province.

Portugal and Indonesia are still negotiating the proposal in
New York.

Dewi just laughed when she was informed about the officials'
opinion.

Dewi was born in Bandung, West Java, on May 22, 1958. Her
parents are Minangkabau. Her father Khaidir was a professor of
literature.

She lived with her grandparents in Payakumbuh, West Sumatra,
from 1964 to 1973 and was reunited with her parents only after
she completed junior high school. She joined her family who moved
to London, where her father worked as a professor of Indonesian
studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

In 1978, she studied at SOAS and obtained her master's degree
a few years later with her thesis The Kaaba and the Garuda: The
Dilemma of Islam in Indonesian politics.

She continued her studies at Monash University in Melbourne,
Australia. She earned her PhD in 1990 with a dissertation on
ASEAN as an Aspect of Indonesian Foreign Policy.

She started working as a researcher on foreign affairs at the
National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in 1983 and is still active
there.

She is also on the staff of the Center for Information and
Development Studies (CIDES), a think thank established by the
influential Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals
(ICMI). Habibie was the founder of ICMI.

Married in 1983 to Yos Rizal, a distant relative, Dewi is the
mother of daughter Laraswati, 15, and son Deka Febriawan, 9.

Yos works at a private company. Dewi said her husband's salary
is the family's main income. "I am a civil servant, but my taste
is really a private employee's taste".

The following is an excerpt of the interview:

Question: How do you influence Pak Habibie on foreign affairs?

Answer: I don't think there is anyone, particularly the
President, who really knows or watches foreign policy. Of course
I am the advisor for foreign affairs.

Q: What does the President think about the autonomy plan (for
East Timor)?

A: In his view, this is the best draft we have been able to come
up with. And you know, we hope it will meet people's aspirations,
particularly the East Timorese, both proindependence and
prointegration, and will also meet the aspirations of the
Portuguese government. The East Timor issue continues to be a
major issue, so we hope that with this, Portugal will be able to
remove the East Timor issue from its constitution. And that
Portugal, according to the draft once it is signed by the
agreement, will be obliged to initiate the removal of this issue
from the UN General Assembly agenda. If this is not accepted,
then the second option will be the only choice left.

Q: Do you think it will be able to satisfy the East Timorese?

A: We will have to see.

Q: How long have you advised Habibie on foreign affairs?

A: Not long. I've worked directly for him since May 1998 when he
was vice president, I was an assistant for global affairs. In
terms of duration, not too long. From before that, as you know, I
have been a researcher at the LIPI and CIDES on international
affairs. But here again, even if the foreign minister wanted to
do something and the President didn't, it does not mean anything.
It is misleading to say that the President is dictated to. I see
myself as a very small component.

Q: Gus Dur (Abdurrahman Wahid) once said that the President
listened more to you than to Alatas?

A: I regard it is compliment... Pak Alatas is playing the
leading role in foreign policy, including the East timor issue.

Q: People at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs say your presence
there is strongly felt...

A: Really? I do not know whether it is positive or negative. The
fact of the matter is that in the past the assistant for foreign
affairs here, Pak Widodo, was more responsible for interpretation
and translation. But now with the restructuring of the State
Secretariat, my office has become more involved in helping the
minister, in issues related to international relations. So in
that sense this office has become much more involved.

But now on the particulars of the East Timor issue, I'm a
member of a small team comprising first echelon officials which
helps work out the draft that the minister of foreign affairs
will take to New York. So we are very involved from the very
beginning.

And of course, I have direct access to the President, so it is
easier for me sometimes to carry a message. Sometimes when
colleagues from other ministries want me to tell the President
something, it is quite easy for me to write a memo to convey the
message that needs to be conveyed to the President. Whether the
President takes notice of it is another matter. I do have direct
access, I have meetings with him in person.

Q: Who is the most dominant advisor to the President?

A: I do not think there is anyone who is dominant. In the past
two months, when the President asked coordinating minister for
political and security affairs to coordinate the draft-making, a
small team was formed. I am the only woman, there are 40 men.

The President accepted my argument about the need to be more
accessible to the media, particularly the international press. I
also tried to make the President more accessible. I think people
should see more.

Q: People are curious about the President's offer of
independence.

A: I did not need to convince Pak Habibie because he came to his
own conclusion. Well, we share the same idea, but it does not
mean I tell him. I think he came to his own independent
conclusion that the East Timor issue has to be resolved. It does
not mean that he wants to let East Timor go just like that.
Personally, I think all of us Indonesians would like to see East
Timor continue to be part of Indonesia, for political reasons,
security reasons ... but because of our commitment to democracy,
our commitment to human rights, that East Timor is an
international issue and not just our own issue, then we have to
accept certain limitations in our abilities to resolve the East
Timor issue independently. We need a breakthrough.

But what happens if a majority of East Timorese chose not to
be part of Indonesia? As a democratic country and according to
the constitution, we can not just simply force our will, we
should allow them to have self determination. We should give them
the choice.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs came to the same conclusion
many years ago. It has been working on an autonomy package,
suggestions for autonomy, since 1994. In fact, Pak Alatas
mentioned it to Pak Harto in 1994. But Pak Harto would not even
consider the suggestion. That is why people think (that the
ministry was passive).

As a matter of fact, the ministry's people came to the
conclusion a long time ago that we have to find a breakthrough to
solve the East Timorese issue. As you know, our diplomats have
suffered criticism, humiliation in various international forums,
they do not want the issue to go on indefinitely. So they are
very supportive of the President's solution.

Q: Ministry officials jokingly say the initials for Dewi Fortuna
Anwar -- DFA -- stand for the Department of Foreign Affairs...

A: Somebody says DFA, but I do not consider myself to be
influential at all, because the President is the president, he
makes his own decisions ... If people think I am overly
influential that is their perception.

Q: National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Amien Rais has often
mentioned you as a possibility for his foreign minister if he
wins the general election. Has he told you about his plan?

A: He has said it several times, including at a seminar in
Australia in 1998. I think it is a compliment from Pak Amien
Rais.