Foreign Office has new spokesman

JAKARTA (JP): Diplomat Ghaffar Fadyl was installed yesterday as the new spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an increasingly important post as Indonesia seeks to play a more proactive role in international diplomacy.

Ghaffar's predecessor as Director of Information, Irawan Abidin, will soon assume his new post as Indonesia's ambassador to the Republic of Greece. Irawan served as the chief spokesman of the ministry for two years.

Ghaffar, 53, was swore in by Director General for Social, Cultural and Information Affairs Djauhari Nataatmadja in a ceremony at the ministry's Jl. Pejambon office building yesterday.

Ghaffar was formerly head of the sociopolitical section at the Indonesian Embassy in Vienna, Austria, between 1991 and 1995. He also served as the information officer of the Indonesian Embassy in Moscow between 1984 and 1988.

Before joining the foreign service, he worked as a reporter at the Jakarta bureau of Agence France Presse between 1967 and 1971, and before that was part of the editorial staff of the now- defunct Indonesian Standard daily.

The role of the ministry's spokesman has assumed greater importance in the last two years, not only in providing information and disseminating Indonesia's foreign policies, but also in countering the growing negative media reports by critics of Indonesia abroad.

Irawan, for example, has been active in stating Jakarta's policy on East Timor, an issue that has continued to hound Indonesia in international diplomacy.

After Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas, the spokesman has become the most sought after official at the ministry, particularly by foreign media, to explain the government's position on various issues.

Djauhari in his speech asked the new spokesman to be more active in countering disinformation campaigns and distortions of news launched abroad which show Indonesia in an unfavorable light.

He urged Ghaffar to strengthen coordination and improve communication with all information officers at all Indonesian embassies.

It is no longer enough for information officers to master communication methods and techniques, Djauhari said.

They should not only wait to counter misleading information about Indonesia, but also develop their own network of media people to feed in information about Indonesia, he said.

He also underlined that human rights, democracy and environmental protection have now become issues that are often used by critics abroad to try to discredit Indonesia.

The ministry, in cooperation with the Ministry of Information and other government agencies, is currently in the process of establishing a media center through which all information about Indonesia will be distributed to both local and foreign media. (rms)