House examines ambassadorial candidates
House examines ambassadorial candidates
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Following the controversial installment of three new ambassadors
recently, the House of Representatives began to screen 17 more
ambassadorial candidates with the expectation that President
Megawati Soekarnoputri will heed the House's recommendations.
House Commission I on security, defense and foreign affairs
screened six of the 17 candidates on Thursday to determine their
vision and mission in the posts.
The six were Sulaiman Abdulmanan, Setiyanto Pujowarsito, Basri
Hasanuddin, Abdurahman Matalite, Roni Hidayat and Ribhan A.
Wahab.
The screening was conducted behind closed doors in order to
maintain confidentiality.
Commission chairman Ibrahim Ambong declined to identify the 17
ambassadorial candidates and would not reveal the countries they
were to be assigned to.
"Our main goal is to ensure that the ambassadorial candidates
are skilled in international diplomacy to forge bilateral
cooperation between Indonesian and foreign countries," he said.
When asked how the ambassadorial candidates were screened,
Ambong said that every candidate had been asked to present their
vision and mission if assigned to a post overseas.
The deputy chairman of the commission, Isac Latuconsina, said
screening would be completed within two weeks.
The House has protested the installment of three ambassadorial
candidates who, according to the commission, do not meet the
minimum criteria set by the House.
Many legislators called on the House to boycott the screening
of the 17 ambassadorial candidates because the President had
ignored recommendations on three previous candidates.
Despite objections from the House, Megawati went ahead with
her plan to swear in Irsan Abdul Gani as new ambassador to Japan,
Amin Rianom to Turkey and Azerbaijan and Hardikun Supandar to
Algeria.
Article 13 of the amended Constitution stipulates that the
president in his/her capacity as head of state has the
prerogatives to appoint ambassadors after listening to the House
of Representatives' considerations.
Ambong said the President went ahead with the planned
installment because the House leadership did not explain in its
letter to Megawati why the three new ambassadors were considered
unsuitable.
"We hope the President will listen to our recommendations on
the 17 ambassadorial candidates," he said, adding that commission
members had no personal interest in the matter.
He added that the commission had done its duty in screening
the ambassadorial candidates objectively and fairly and had taken
all elements into consideration before forwarding its
recommendations.