Dorodjatun campaigns for awareness for RI

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.