Diplomats and diplomatists

Diplomats and diplomatists

The cartoonist was, of course, fully within his right to
express his opinions about the repatriation of so-called "illegal
workers" from Malaysia to Indonesia. The cartoon depicted a
myriad of mini-dolls pouring out from a waste basket, labeled
"illegal workers", in a flow that headed for the desk of a
bureaucratic-looking official, who was confronting another set of
mini-dolls seated on his desk, designating the status of
unemployment (The Jakarta Post, Aug. 8).

The cartoon highlighted the news of the repatriation of some
hundreds of thousands of illegal workers from Malaysia. Watching
on TV the disembarkation of the workers with their families,
including small children, at the port in Medan is, indeed, a very
saddening drama.

Then followed the news that Malaysia turned down
Indonesia's request to permit the workers to return to
Malaysia sometime after their repatriation. (Post, Aug. 9 ).

If the above scenario on the one hand exposed the suffering
and griefs affecting common people in search of a better life in
a neighbor country, a quite paradoxical scenario emerged on the
other hand, manifesting a rejoicing episode at the government
level.

Indonesia inaugurated the first natural gas exports to
Malaysia, worth US$6.2 billion, reportedly through a 96-kilometer
undersea pipeline, from West Natuna to the offshore facilities of
Petronas, Malaysia.

If the above mutually contradicting episodes are put together
in a combined perspective of mutually complementary benefits, to
form the basis for a reconciliatory effort to seek future
solutions to the problem of Indonesian workers wishing to return
to Malaysia, then a potential bargaining arrangement should not
be dismissed so as to find a workable modality in terms of
compromise.

The art of diplomacy should be utilized by the Indonesia side.
To tackle the challenging task, perhaps not mere diplomats but
rather diplomatists, meaning tactful diplomats, are called for.

S. SUHAEDI

Jakarta