Envoy Fulda saying goodbye to the diplomatic game

Envoy Fulda saying goodbye to the diplomatic game

Fritz Kuhlmann, Contributor, Jakarta

Sometimes a diplomat needs to take to the sports field instead of
working the corridors of power. German ambassador Gerhard Fulda
recently spent some time among young athletic hopefuls in Papua,
attending a talent-scouting session.

The event was supported by the government of Germany, which
sent a trainer from the German Olympic committee to help in the
quest to build a new elite of Papuan sports figures.

Yet it's really not so much about running or jumping, but
about politics.

"When some of these young Papuans one day become part of the
national team of Indonesia, this might be far more important than
any oh-so brilliant political speech," Fulda explained.

Fulda's heart was in the event because it was one of his last
activities as German ambassador to Indonesia. On June 17, he will
leave the country to retire from diplomatic service at age 65.

It's also sports that made Fulda become a diplomat. As a child
in Germany under U.S. occupation after World War II in the late
1940s, more than anything else he wanted to watch soccer matches.

Unable to afford a ticket, he tried to obtain free entry as a
reporter from his school newspaper. But as the newspaper was
controlled by the Americans after the end of the Nazi regime,
Fulda first had to attend some of their seminars about
democratization and world politics.

It kindled his interest in foreign affairs -- and years later,
the boy who once loved nothing but soccer successfully applied
for diplomatic service.

"I don't regret one minute of my life as a diplomat," Fulda
said of a career that took him to Rome and Brussels, among other
places. Outside Europe, he specialized in Muslim countries,
representing Germany in Saudi Arabia as well as in Egypt. And
even before doing all that, he wrote his thesis on law in Cairo.

"So I loved that my final professional experience was in
Indonesia," Fulda said of the country, a Muslim country but quite
different from Arab lands.

He recently accompanied German deputy minister of economic
cooperation and foreign aid Uschi Eid during her visit here. Eid
said: "Indonesia could be a role model for the Muslim world, due
to it's tradition of an open, tolerant Islam".

So even if the bombings in Bali and at Jakarta's JW Marriott
hotel marked Fuldas' stay in the country, he stressed that
German interest here does not focus on terrorism but on
democratization.

"There have been significant changes since 1998," Fulda said,
especially in that decentralization and the installment of the
constitutional court had full support from the various German
agencies.

"It's rare to see those in power giving something of it to
other institutions, as it is happening in Indonesia."

Still, Fulda experienced himself that things are far from
perfect.

"When I imported my car from back home, customs officials did
not release it for weeks and weeks," Fulda remembered. "They made
it quite clear that if I would bribe them, I would get my car at
once."

He refused, "of course".

As an ambassador, he could find other means of transport until
the customs grew tired of the game. But ordinary citizens suffer
quite a lot from the fact that public service here tends to ask
for kickbacks, Fulda observed. "There is still a lot to do."

Surprisingly, together with Fulda, almost half of the senior
staff, or one quarter of the total staff of the embassy, are
being transferred. This includes the deputy ambassador, one of
the two political consultants, the specialist for Islamic issues
and, soon, the military attache. Also, Fuldas' successor has yet
to be nominated.

In the German community in the country, the move is seen with
some skepticism -- especially because it is happening right
before the presidential elections.

The reason for the exodus, though, is simple: for all the
German diplomatic staff around the globe, there is one date each
year to switch from one job to another, and that's now.

"It's just coincidence, just bad luck that so many of us are
now leaving Jakarta," the ambassador explained. "But then again,
it gives the new staff the opportunity for a real new start."

In fact, that seems to be what will happen. Not everyone in
the foreign ministry has been fully satisfied with the
performance of the German embassy in the past few years, sources
said. And in the German community in Jakarta, there are also
critical voices.

"The ambassador took care of a problem that was presented to
him when he thought it was interesting," one German businessman
said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "But for quite a
few of our problems he just did not take any interest."

Others close to human rights groups say they liked ambassador
Heinrich Seemann, Fuldas predecessor, better. Most agree that he
was a great communicator.

But that comparison might be misleading, other Germans say.

"When Seemann was in office in 1998, it was much easier to
gain an impressive record because there were simply so many
things happening," one longtime observer stresses. "It was an
exceptional period."

However, German-Indonesian relations in general are good and
hopefully will remain so, Fulda said. And he even thinks that the
economic ties -- still significant but weakened by the effects of
the Asian economic crisis -- will become more important with
time.

"Right now, everyone looks only at China," Fulda said. "But
this, too, will change one day."

He himself will start a second career after his life as a
diplomat. Fulda is a collector of traditional arts and
handicrafts, and he especially appreciates the ikat of Indonesia.
He plans to open a gallery in Berlin with a focus on Islamic art.

Fulda doesn't think that this means exploiting the heritage of
Muslim countries, as some may see it. On the contrary, he hopes
to become a promoter of Islamic art -- in his own way, an
ambassador once again.