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