Sun, 23 Sep 2001

Envoy Gozney back in land of his youth

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): If British Ambassador Richard Gozney found himself holding a magic wand, he would first wave it over all terrorists in the hope that they would realize that there is a peaceful way to bring justice to this world.

Gozney agreed to an interview on his long association with Indonesia before Sept. 11, but when the Sunday Post met the 50- year-old ambassador to Indonesia the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington had already taken place and therefore dominated the conversation.

To get to Gozney today means going through at least half a dozen double doors accompanied by an escort, repeated security checks of the handbag and a separate one of the tape recorder. In fact the offices of the British ambassador to the largest Muslim country in the world look more like a fortress rather than a diplomatic mission, with dozens of armed guards circling the premises on Jl. Thamrin.

Born and brought up in the university town of Oxford, Gozney is no stranger to this country. He was just 22 years old when he joined the British Diplomatic Service and came here as a junior political officer in 1974.

The first thing he did on being told of his posting was to bring out the atlas. He claims his knowledge of Indonesia was rather modest. He wanted to make sure if Sumatra, Java and Bali were all part of one country. Like a lot of people in Europe at that time, Gozney was not quite sure what Java was about. People knew far more about Bali because they had seen many films made on the exotic island.

But once he was here, he had a start to life which he now describes as illuminating. His first job on arrival was further travel to the edge of a cassava field in Yogyakarta, and later to Bandung to study the local language for three months. He was young and impressionable and easily charmed by the extremely polite and welcoming people he came in contact with.

He found the language rather easy to learn and to practice, and the graciousness of the people he met combined to make a pretty magic mix for the young Gozney. On hindsight he feels that he got an excellent introduction to the country and at the end of four years, when the time came to move on, all that he could do was to leave a bit of his heart behind.

For the next two decades Gozney lived in different corners of the world with nothing except fond memories of this country. He often wondered if he would ever earn the attractive opportunity to live here again?

The prosaic ways of bureaucracy, however, did not promise him anything as poetic as a posting back to Indonesia.

"This is pure chance, good timing and some luck that I am here," smiles Gozney, who lives here with his wife Diana while sons James, 14, and Alexander, 11, study in boarding school in England.

During the summer holidays, the family of four spent last month traveling across Java to Bali and, all of them nature lovers, were most delighted with their stay at the wildlife sanctuary north of Banyuwangi in East Java.

The Gozneys have hunted out a natural haven here in Jakarta as well which they visit whenever there are a few hours to spare, seeking the company of the rarest of birds that use a small swamp on the northern coast as a retreat.

Gozney feels that this country has so much to look forward to now. The important transition to democracy has already been made, and the immediate tasks at hand are to strengthen institutions like the judiciary, legislature and press so that the difficult mission of strengthening the economy may continue unhampered.

An excerpt from the interview:

Question: You are the British Ambassador to the largest Muslim country in the world at a time when misunderstandings between Islamic societies and the West seem to be at their worst. How does it feel to be here at this point in time?

I am not sure that there is such a misunderstanding between Islamic societies and the West. It is not Islam that the West has a problem with but with terrorist acts, whether the perpetrator be Muslim, Christian or from any other religious group. Leaders of Muslim states have distanced themselves from the terrible incident of Sept. 11. Terrorists are a group of people who are antidemocratic, against civilization and at war with the whole world.

This is a crime against the democratic world, against countries of argument and reason whether with a majority Muslim population such as this one, or with a majority Christian population such as mine. The overwhelming majority in Indonesia is against terrorism as well because the country has bitter experience of it.

I was here when the Jakarta Stock Exchange building was bombed. I knew the rector at the University of Banda Aceh who was killed in early September.

I have a sense of the outrage people here feel at that kind of terrorism. Vice President Hamzah Haz has both privately in meetings with European ambassadors and publicly spoken against terrorism. He has clearly said that Islam does not provide for terrorist acts.

Terrorists are people who are not prepared to work with arguments. They attack anyone in this world who does not share their attitude of hate and irrationality.

Do recent developments after Sept. 11 make your job more difficult?

When I came here last August I did not think I would have to explain to both the British community living here and to the Indonesian people the position my country has taken over the follow-up after Sept. 11.

Now I have to maintain much closer contact with the Indonesian government to spell out the determination of all NATO countries, from Turkey to Canada, that consider the attack on the U.S.A. as an attack on the entire alliance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

That is the new position that needs to be articulated. We cannot simply assume that all people will understand. That is the kind of work we were not doing before Sept. 11.

There are people who are very angry with the U.S. for various reasons. How easily will they understand what you tell them?

I hope to see a very broad understanding of this position here. We have to spell it out in a way that it will be convincing to people here. I feel that people in Indonesia have a genuine antipathy toward any kind of terrorism. Not from any kind of theoretical position, but from recent experiences of having lost too many lives, having seen too much violence lately.

There are too many lives here already scarred by terrorism.

What is the role of diplomacy in a high-tech, jet-setting age like ours, where everyone wants instant answers and solutions?

The role of diplomacy is an important one in developing and maintaining a consensus and coalition. If consistently practiced, it helps bring together a coalition. Articulation is what works in diplomacy and not just assumption. We have to spell it out in a way that it will be convincing to people here.

What is your most important agenda while here?

Britain is the second-largest investor in Indonesia after Japan. We have a lot at stake in this country at a time when working in Indonesia has changed in many ways. With democracy has come decentralization. Our companies are now trying to adjust to the new rules as laid down by the provinces.

I am myself in continuous contact with the provinces. We have to encourage the sharing of ideas. An Indonesian delegation of 15 parliamentarians was in London recently to study how the police force can become more effective in security matters. The Indonesian Army wants to find out how the British Armed Forces faced the revolutionary changes that took place within the organization when 55,000 British soldiers positioned in West Germany since 1945 had to be redeployed elsewhere almost overnight after East and West Berlin united in 1989? The working of the Scottish parliament is being studied to see how it functions within the United Kingdom but independent of London.

No country can ever serve as an exact model for another, but it helps to know how others deal with similar problems.

There seems so much wrong at the moment with this world of ours and if you found a magic wand in your hand this minute, what is the first thing that you would do with it?

I would wave my magic wand over the terrorists to change their hearts, to illuminate their minds so that they are able to see that there are peaceful ways to change things. It is much slower and takes longer, and I understand the frustration of people like the Palestinians, I cannot pretend otherwise.

But Yasser Arafat too has strongly condemned terrorism which is a clear indication that someone like that does not see political change through terrorism.

Britain's own experience in terrorism is a very vivid one. But to see a world that is overwhelmingly democratic, with a democratic Russia and democratic Southeast Asia, it is possible for people to win arguments through democratic means. It is possible to change things by electing representatives, by debates in parliament, changing governments through the ballot box. It is not easy. It does take a long time.

How do you see the future of all of us?

The immediate future looks difficult. In an ideal world the perpetrators of terrorist acts like the most recent ones of Sept. 11 will give themselves up, or are persuaded to give themselves up. That may well happen. I am still hopeful.

But those who attacked New York and Washington on Sept. 11 died with the victims ... ?

I mean the masterminds of the terrorist acts should give themselves up. That would be an ideal future. Otherwise, there seems to be a difficult period ahead of us.