Dutch envoy van Roijen bids farewell to Indonesia

Dutch envoy van Roijen bids farewell to Indonesia

By Linawati Sidarto

JAKARTA (JP): When Ambassador Jan Herman Robert Dudley van
Roijen began his tenure here in early 1992, relations between the
Netherlands and Indonesia were at a low ebb. Two months earlier
the Netherlands had frozen its aid to Indonesia, in a protest
against the Dili incident in November 1991.

"Some of my Indonesian friends said I'd arrived here at a low
point, which is good psychology because things could only
improve, and they did," reminisced van Roijen, who will be
leaving Jakarta this week to take a new post as ambassador for
the United Kingdom and Iceland.

In some ways van Roijen is a special envoy to Indonesia as his
family name is ingrained in the nation's history. His father Dr.
J.H. van Roijen was one of Netherlands' most important diplomats
in post World War II. He signed the Roem-Roijen agreement in
1949, which preceded the official transfer of power from the
Dutch to the Indonesians and presided over the pulling out of the
Dutch troops from Dutch New Guinea, now Irian Jaya.

Jan Herman Van Roijen said it was his father who inspired him
to join the diplomatic corps.

"When I was six years old, I actually wanted to be a zoo
director," said the ambassador, who was born in 1936.

Van Roijen said his knowledge of Indonesia and its people
assisted him in getting through his first difficult months here.

In March 1992, barely a month after he presented his
credentials, he was summoned by then senior economic minister
Radius Prawiro and told about Indonesia's decision to reject
further Dutch aid, and the demand for the dissolution of the
Inter-Governmental Group on Indonesia, a western aid donor
consortium chaired by the Netherlands.

This was Indonesia's pointed response towards developmental
aid being tied to its human rights record, in the wake of the
1991 Dili tragedy.

"This (decision) came to us rather unexpectedly. We didn't
know the Indonesian government was going to take this measure.

"It was no longer business as usual. In the beginning, we
really had to make an effort at the Embassy to mount an
offensive, to talk with virtually everybody, to explain that the
Netherlands hoped all other elements of the relationship would be
enhanced."

According to Frans Seda, chairman of the Indonesia Netherlands
Association, van Roijen was quite successful in isolating the aid
issue and preventing that from spreading to other areas.

"In a way, this (rejection of aid) was a blessing in disguise,
since relations between the two countries are substantially
better now, than they were before 1992. We can approach each
other as completely equal partners, and have cooperation on an
equal basis," van Roijen explained.

The Netherlands is currently the sixth largest foreign
investor in Indonesia. Volume of trade between the two countries
last year totaled more than US$1.5 billion, a 30-percent increase
from the previous year.

During his tenure here, van Roijen said, a record number of
Dutch ministers visited Indonesia, and also other prominent
figures, from politicians to members of the Dutch royal family.

When asked whether any economic aid exists since the
dissolution of IGGI, van Roijen emphasized again that anything
between the two countries is based on mutual cooperation on an
equal level. Recently, he said, a steering committee on education
and scientific affairs has been set up which will make it
possible for the Indonesian and Dutch governments to allocate
budgetary funds for those purposes.

The funds amounted to about US$2.7 million. However, he
stressed, "We do not call it aid."

As former colony and colonizer, Indonesia and the Netherlands,
naturally have a relationship that lends itself to special
circumstances. For example, the fact that many members of the
Indonesian upper middle class, especially those in advanced age,
speak fluent Dutch and have more than a casual bond with the
Netherlands.

On the other hand, there are also instances like the visa
rejection, in August last year, for Indonesian human rights
activist H.J.C. Princen. Princen, who deserted the Dutch army in
the 1940s, joined the Indonesian side and later became an
Indonesian citizen. This personal record has rendered some
people in the Netherlands to oppose Princen's visit to his native
country.

When asked about some parties alleging that the visa rejection
was decided in Indonesia, van Roijen curtly answered: "I don't
confirm that. It's a matter between me and my government that I
can't expand upon."

Queen Beatrix's planned visit to Indonesia in August next
year, the time Indonesia will celebrate its 50th anniversary, has
also sparked some discussion in the Netherlands.

Even though Indonesia declared its independence in 1945, the
Netherlands did not formally recognize it until the end of 1949.
During those years, armed clashes between the two sides resulted
in casualties not negligible in numbers. So, some people in the
Netherlands tend to deem that acknowledgment of the 1945
independence makes the sacrifices made between 1945 and 1949 seem
superfluous, and therefore are against such formal recognition,
van Roijen explained.

"Parliament will discuss it, but my educated guess is they
will favor the Queen visiting Indonesia," predicted van Roijen,
whose own family is closely acquainted with the Dutch royal
family.

Previous to being posted as ambassador here, van Roijen had
served twice as a diplomat in Indonesia, first in the 60s, and
then again in the early 80s.

In April 1965, van Roijen started his first diplomatic post as
third secretary at the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta. He stayed until
1967, which made him witness to a dark page in the history of the
young republic. On the evening of Sept. 30, 1965, van Roijen
recalled, there was a party given by the ambassador of Italy.
Around 10 p.m., some Indonesians guests were abruptly summoned
and had to leave the party. "I don't want to say who they were,
but the people summoned were so interesting that we knew
something was coming off," he said about the event later known as
the aborted communist coup.

When van Roijen leaves Indonesia Thursday he will leave behind
a country that has probably meant more to him than just a place
where he worked. When his second daughter was due to be born on
an early morning in May 1966, he recalled, the van Roijen couple
barely made it to Saint Carolus hospital in Central Jakarta, due
to the student demonstrations in the streets.

When asked whether he would have done anything differently, if
he knew then what he knows now, van Roijen replied, "Not a thing.
It's like a marriage, they go well, and there is nothing
substantial you would have done differently. I really mean
that."