Foreign policy must be beneficial

Foreign policy must be beneficial

I would like to comment on Meidyatama Suryodiningrat's article
on Feb. 16, titled Realism, idealism in diplomacy with Malaysia
and Singapore. Basically I agree with his view that we must
tackle first (domestically) all issues related to Singapore and
Malaysia, such as corruption and illegal migrant workers.
However, I do not fully agree if we perceive Malaysia and
Singapore as "innocent bystanders" in this matter.

In relation to illegal migrant worker issues in Malaysia, we
must keep in mind that in every economic or market-related
activity there is always the law of demand and supply. In this
case, if there was no demand from Malaysian employers, would all
those workers will be willing to go abroad, leaving their
families behind for the mere possibility of a job?

There is no doubt that the roots of the problem are domestic,
but it would be fairer if the Malaysian government could also
regulate Malaysian employers to be stricter in accepting
Indonesian workers and to pay their wages properly. Keeping this
in mind, I don't think the government is naive enough to assume
that by tackling the problem abroad, it will automatically
resolve the problem domestically.

The same perspective could also apply to the extradition issue
with Singapore. Although the corruption problem is a domestic
issue for Indonesia, we all know that Singapore is notoriously a
comfortable place for fugitives of corruption to hide.

In today's international relations, with globalization and
interdependence among nations, it becomes more difficult to
define whether an issue is a domestic or an international one.
So-called domestic issues, such as illegal migrant workers,
corruption or illegal logging could have a linkage or have an
impact on the international community and vice versa.

Facing this situation, then it is logic if the government also
tries to tackle those issues internationally.

Finally, I am confused by Meidyatama's view that "sometimes it
is important for leaders to defy their own domestic constituent
to ameliorate unnecessary friction". Does this mean that we
should sacrifice our nation's interest just for the sake of good
relations with our neighbors? Foreign policy, first and foremost,
is always about serving the interests of one's own nation.
Indeed, this is the nature of the foreign policy of any country.
In the case of Indonesia, it is important to maintain good
relations with our neighbors, but of course not at the expense of
national interests.

VITTO RAFAEL TAHAR, Jakarta