Dorodjatun campaigns for awareness for RI

By Yenni Djahidin

WASHINGTON D.C. (JP): When Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti attended a seminar about Indonesia at Georgetown University here last July, the senior economist from the University of Indonesia used the occasion to introduce fellow scholar Juwono Sudarsono as the likely future Indonesian ambassador to the United States.

As the post was soon to become vacant many names were being thrown around, and Juwono was one of the front runners. Dorodjatun, if his name was mentioned at all, was an outside bet.

As fate would have it, Dorodjatun got the Washington post while Juwono is now state minister of environment.

Dorodjatun, who related this anecdote in an interview, plunged into his job as soon as he presented his letters of credential to President Bill Clinton at the White House last month, replacing ambassador Arifin Siregar.

He has traveled to New York as part of what he calls his campaign to reach out to Americans, and to help Americans better understand Indonesia.

He has a lot to cover, not only in terms of mileage, but also in terms of people and groups of people, given the ignorance of most Americans about Indonesia, in spite, if not because of, the recent massive coverage of Indonesia by the American media.

In the interview, 58-year-old Dorodjatun easily switched his cap from that of an ambassador to a scholar as he talked about his new job and about the economic conditions back home.

His diplomatic assignment has not changed his easy-going style for which he was well known during his time as a professor at the University of Indonesia and as dean of the university's School of Economics.

He diplomatically declined to go into details about the 27 months he spent in prison for taking part in antigovernment protests in the 1970s. "It's not good for your soul to remember that kind of experience," he said.

Here are excerpts of the interview.

Question: What are your programs and priorities as ambassador?

Answer: They're not all that different from the ones pursued by my predecessor. The objective is to maintain a good (bilateral) relationship. I think our relationship has always been good. I personally want to see this good relationship continue for decades to come.

Q: What problems or challenges do you foresee?

A: I think it's very difficult to change public opinion. It's also difficult to change the positions of the U.S. Congress. Political power has shifted from federal to state governments. State governments are not interested solely in domestic politics, they also want to reach out to the world.

Q: Do you have any plans to improve the image of Indonesia among Americans?

A: I will try to meet community leaders, business leaders and, most importantly, members of Congress. I also hope to visit as many states as I can.

With our limited number of staff, it will be difficult to cover all of them. We can't visit them all. I don't think this job can be finished in my time here.

Q: Have the budget cuts affected the embassy's operations and your campaign to reach out to the American people?

A: We simply have to plan our itinerary better. We should try to arrange several meetings in one place. When I traveled to New York with other ASEAN ambassadors recently, I used my spare time to meet with other people. If I keep doing this, I can accomplish a lot of things in a short time, although it may be tiring.

We need to have a good network. It's not easy to arrange several meetings in a day. It can take two weeks to prepare one single visit. If we can pack seven meetings into a day, in a three-day visit we can have 21 meetings. It's tiring and I don't think I can do it every week. Maybe I'll travel every two or three weeks.

Q: Who are you targeting in your campaign?

A: The main target should be young people, the next generation of leaders. We've met people in their 30s and 40s and I was so surprised to find out that most of them have no idea about Southeast Asia. They are familiar with China, India and Japan but not with Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines and Indonesia.

My challenge is how to reach out to these young people, who will develop the future relations with Indonesia.

I notice that there are more academic people in the American leadership (than in the past). But although they keep in touch with news from around the globe, they are not focused and don't have in-depth knowledge.

We also rely on help from former U.S. ambassadors to Indonesia and former members of the diplomatic corps. I have asked for their good offices to introduce me to people in positions of leadership here, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the U.S. Treasury Department. Very often, their personal messages have a better impact than our telephone calls.

I will also be meeting with businesspeople, especially those who have business interests in Southeast Asia.

I have received lots of inquiries from businesspeople about the currency crisis in Southeast Asia. Indonesia has not been covered well by the media here. With the crisis, people want to know more about Indonesia.

This is actually an opportunity for me to explain to the press about Indonesia. I have just met with the Wall Street Journal, and I hope to meet more media people, especially columnists, in the future.

Q: Are you going to give a media conference?

A: I did in New York.

I think the American media are still at the stage of trying to understand what's going on. They haven't reached any fundamental understanding about Indonesia. American people have many answers to many problems, but in the case of Indonesia, they haven't asked the right questions yet. The right questions will lead to good answers and explanations.

Q: How do you see the student protests back home?

A: I think it's not unusual. Most of the students have never experienced any financial problems. The impact of the crisis on a country of 205-million people is big. An economy goes through such a cycle. You get a recession every 10 years, and a big one every 30 years.

Q: How long will it take for Indonesia to recover?

A: With foreign aid and the end of the El Nino phenomenon, the agriculture sector should increase production by 3 percent in 1999. With the restructuring of the manufacturing sector, and with stronger oil prices, the economy should see 5 percent growth next year. We also have to work on other sectors, particularly the banking industry. In the year 2000, we will be back on course and maybe we can reach 7 percent growth again in 2001.