Geneva property 'meets long-term necessity'

Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Geneva

From the main road in Collonge-Bellerive district, the little pink house looks inconspicuous. It is almost hidden behind the trees, and the huge garden surrounding it makes it look even smaller.

The property in this largely agriculture commune on the outskirts of Geneva is pretty isolated: opposite is a nursery for flowers and other plants that are grown in adjacent plots. To its left is a place for equestrian training.

This seemingly ideal three-bedroom house will soon be the official residence of Ambassador Makarim Wibisono, head of Indonesia's permanent mission to the United Nations here.

This weekend, however, the ambassador and his staff got a rude awakening, and not only from the news of the death of Pope John Paul II (which was largely expected).

Two local newspapers, Le Matin and the Tribune de Geneve, noticed a small announcement in the UN's official gazette about the recent property transaction.

With a price tag of 9.6 million Swiss francs (US$8.7 million), the two papers related the purchase to the fact that Indonesia had recently been a recipient of billions of dollars of donations from all over the world -- including from the Swiss government and people -- in the wake of the earthquake and tsunamis that killed over 200,000 people and displaced over 500,000 others in Aceh and North Sumatra.

The article left the impression among some readers in Switzerland that Indonesia had used that money to buy the property. Inevitably, the story was picked up by news agencies and quickly found its way back to the Indonesian media and public.

"I've been getting calls from people here as well as from back home all day," Eddi Hariyadhi, Makarim's first deputy at the mission, said in his office on Monday. Answering the queries and fending off the allegations took up much of his time on Monday, as his boss continued to chair the UN Commission on Human Rights.

He categorically denied the insinuation that the money to buy the property came from donations for tsunami victims. "That would be suicidal," he said.

The mission had long planned to buy a property to accommodate its three accredited ambassadors to the United Nations in Geneva. Makarim and his wife currently reside in one smaller property in the Malagnou area.

Their three grown-up children do not live with the couple anymore, contrary to reports by the Geneva newspapers. If and when the couple move to Colonge-Bellerive, Eddi will occupy the Malagnou residence. But that will not be soon because the new house is not furnished.

The mission had been looking for a house since May when it got the OK from Jakarta. Out of more than a dozen houses that it looked at and negotiated over, it sealed a deal for the pink house in November, and put down a 500,000 Swiss franc deposit for it.

The transaction could only be completed three months later once it got the approval from the various local and federal agencies.

"I think it was a case of unfortunate timing. No one could have foreseen the (December) tsunami," Eddi said, acknowledging the sensitivity of the Swiss public (and the Indonesian public at home too) to news involving such sums of money.

Is the $8.7 million price for the house and the 10,000 square meters of land justifiable?

"Geneva is one of the most expensive cities in the world," he said.

And the description in Le Matin was exaggerated. The property does not overlook the Geneva Lake and such a feature would definitely have cost the Indonesian government a whole lot more. It has a small swimming pool (not grand), a guest house (not servant's quarters). A shack filled with logs indicate that the previous occupants were prepared for a long and cold winter but never got round to burning them.

What the property does have is room, and ample parking space for visitors.

"We need a larger property for the head of our mission because his residence also carries social as well as diplomatic functions," Eddi said.

Like the Indonesian embassies elsewhere, the mission in Geneva hosts national Independence Day celebrations on Aug. 17, and from time to time other celebrations like the Idul Fitri Muslim holiday. Some 200 Indonesians who live in Geneva and surrounding towns usually attend the Aug. 17 gathering. The current residence in Malagnou is too small for such large gatherings, which always inconvenienced the neighbors due to the lack of parking space.

The mission currently forks out something like 30,000 francs a month for the rent of two houses -- totaling 360,000 francs a year that it has to spend on accommodation.

Buying the property actually means huge savings for Indonesia compared to paying the rent, Eddi argues. "I think it is worth making the savings and owning the property for as long as there is a United Nations."