Envoy Pascoe: Foodie with a mission

Envoy Pascoe: Foodie with a mission

Yenni Djahidin, Contributor, Washington D.C.

The State Department press officer was still talking about rules for the interview when the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Indonesia entered the room.

B. Lynn Pascoe extended his right hand and introduced himself with a broad smile. He seemed relaxed and friendly.

"I don't have an office here," Pascoe said. The interview was carried out in a small, windowless room in the heavily fortified State Department headquarters. With recent confirmation from the U.S. Senate, he is now waiting to depart for his new post at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.

"We (he and his wife Diane) are looking forward to it very much," Pascoe told The Jakarta Post. He said there was nowhere more exciting in East Asia than Indonesia.

Pascoe and his wife have spent many years in Asia -- including two-and-a-half years when he was ambassador to Malaysia -- but they have never before been to Indonesia.

Confessing he was not very knowledgeable about Indonesia, Pascoe said he was endeavoring to learn more about the country, including its language.

"My wife and I worked at Bahasa Indonesia part-time for the past month. So, at this point, I am very much a beginner," he said. Pascoe also said he has been reading a lot about the history, politics and culture of the country.

"I've read enough to know that I know very little, so I will keep working on that when I get there." he said.

He said Indonesia has come along very well with reform. "I've been in this business for a long time, and nothing is more exciting than to see a country that is changing -- booming as quickly as Indonesia," he said.

"We should always remind ourselves that it's only been six years since (president) Soeharto was in power," he said.

Before his appointment as ambassador to Indonesia, B. Lynn Pascoe worked as deputy assistant secretary for European and Asian affairs.

In his 37 years with the US foreign service, he also served in Thailand, Taiwan, and China.

Pascoe said the U.S. had every reason to have a good relationship with Indonesia. Both countries are important to each other, he noted. "It's important that we work together to produce the kind of world that we all want to live in," he said.

The ambassador said he believed the U.S. and Indonesia would continue to have a very close relationship, regardless of who won the presidential election in the U.S." I see that there is a very positive future," he said.

Among his top priorities are finding out what the new Indonesian government and the Indonesian people want "and then trying to figure out how we might be able to help."

He also said that he is interested in the development of the Indonesian economy and the problems of terrorism.

Pascoe grew up in a small town on the Mississippi in the state of Missouri. He added, "I always tell people I can quote Mark Twain about my childhood.

Mark Twain always said, 'If you want to know anything about my childhood, read Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.' And, I can say, just as Mark Twain did, if you want to know anything about my childhood, you can still read the same books because 100 years later, it hasn't changed that much: It's still a small town in Missouri."

The ambassador explained why he uses an initial in place of his first name. He said his mother always called him by his middle name, Lynn, instead of Burton.

Pascoe now has two grown daughters and two grandchildren. One of his daughters also works for the State Department.

He likes to read nonfiction books and sees movies only occasionally. "I don't watch television," he said.

However, he said, the Pascoes love to eat good food. He noted that, as students in Taiwan many years ago, they used to go out in search of good food. He said they often tried food sold by street vendors.

"That's when we developed a taste for really good food, not the served-to-foreigners kind of food," he said. "One of the things that we're already looking forward to is the variety of food," he said, with a loud laugh. He added that his wife is a "mango fanatic."

The new ambassador said he plays golf once a week. "But I am a bad golfer," he chuckled.