House set to OK ambassadorial nominees

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After a three-day screening process, the House of Representatives appears set to accept all of the 20 nominees for ambassadorial posts proposed by the government, although some legislators had previously criticized what they claimed was the mediocre quality of some of the nominees.

It has, however, also considered changing the postings of some of the nominees.

The House foreign affairs commission wrapped up the lengthy selection hearings, which were conducted behind closed doors, on Wednesday. Its official conclusions are, however, still confidential.

Commission chairman Theo L. Sambuaga said after a presentation by the last nominee that most of the candidates generally satisfied the parameters set by the commission, and that they deserved to be appointed as ambassadors.

"But we'll probably switch two or three nominees because we are of the opinion that they are not so suitable for their proposed postings," he said.

Commission deputy chairman Effendi Choirie said the making of such changes was normal practice.

"For example, we once recommended that Susanto Pudjomartono, who had initially been proposed for Australia, be replaced with Imron Cotan as we thought Susanto was neither tough enough nor a sufficiently high-profile person for Australia," he said.

Among the nominees that may be switched this time around are Lusia Helwinda Rustam (proposed by the government for Switzerland, but recommended by lawmakers for France), Maj. Gen. (ret) Sudrajat (China to the United States), and Retno Lestari Marsudi (Norway to Australia).

"They seem to be better suited to representing Indonesia in the latter countries, which are major ones," said Effendi.

Nevertheless, a number of members said they had encountered some major issues during the selection hearings for some of the nominees, which the legislators said made it difficult for them to give their recommendations.

"There were some nominees whose knowledge about Indonesia was quite minimal. For example, they didn't know about local autonomy or why Aceh has been allowed to implement sharia," said legislator Abdillah Toha.

Furthermore, he said, many of the nominees lacked acceptance in the international community, despite the fact that such acceptance was essential for Indonesia's representatives in prominent countries.

According to Effendi, some of the nominees failed to impress the House and were close to not being approved by the commission.

"But we tried to be merciful as they have dedicated their entire lives to the (foreign) ministry," he said.

The legislators previously questioned the preponderance of foreign ministry officials compared to nominees from outside the ministry.

"Foreign minister Hassan (Wirayuda) argued that the selections were based on the missions that the government wants to accomplish and that the nominees were the right people for the jobs. But, when we assessed them, some of them turned out to be of very mediocre quality, even lower than we expected," he said.

The commission will submit the results of the screening process and its recommendations to the President. The House only has the authority to make recommendations, while the final say is up to the President.