Indonesian diplomats told to improve their skills

JAKARTA (JP): Noted international affairs observer Juwono Sudarsono has urged local diplomats to improve their overall skills to enable them to catch up with the rapid developments in international issues.

Juwono, a former defense minister, said an improvement in skills is badly needed because the current approach they apply is no longer effective in dealing with current international issues.

Speaking at a seminar held by the association of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' pensioners on Wednesday, Juwono told diplomats to adopt a philosophy detailed in an article entitled "Lexus and Olive Tree" written by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times daily about two months ago.

"Be like the Lexus which adopts elements from various countries in the world, but still be adamant like the olive tree," said Juwono reminding the diplomats to be aware and adopt everything considered necessary in international affairs development, but not to leave their own roots behind.

The Lexus is a Japanese luxury car made by adopting technology from various countries while the Olive Tree has strong roots.

Juwono added that one problem faced by Indonesian diplomats in dealing with their diplomatic duties is that most of them still depend heavily on domestic references rather than international affairs.

"Indonesian diplomats frequently face difficulties in lobbying their foreign counterparts because nearly 80 percent of them still use references from within the country to deal with rapid developments in international issues," he said.

Juwono admitted that the president of a certain country plays a significant role in the success of its foreign diplomacy.

Juwono's last remark however, was opposed by Aisyah Aminy, a member of the House of Representatives' Commission I on defense, foreign and political affairs, who said that the success of foreign diplomacy does not depend only on a president, but also on its foreign minister.

Citing the previous administration, she said that Indonesia's policy on foreign affairs was pretty much tarnished by neglect on the part of the then foreign minister.

"Alwi Shihab preferred to accompany former president Abdurrahman Wahid jetting around the world rather than concentrating on the country's foreign affairs policies," Aminy explained, adding that she received many complaints from several foreign delegations because they failed to make contact with the then foreign affairs minister.

Meanwhile, former foreign affairs minister Ali Alatas, another speaker at the seminar, discussed his experiences during the Soeharto and B.J. Habibie era.

"I see that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs still lacks the willingness to adopt what has been going on in the latest foreign affairs arena to be transferred to the people inside the country," he said.

He admitted that such shortcomings made foreign policy gain less support from the people, as they feel they were not told about the real problems happening in the nation.

"They always said for example, that the East Timorese issue was no longer a problem even though foreign diplomats still raised tough questions on the problem," he said.

The second problem he said, was that without help from other institutions the foreign affairs ministry was working alone in restoring the country's image among the international community following the outburst over the East Timor problem that has marred the nation in the past few years.

He therefore underlined the importance of foreign affairs policies reflecting the political situation inside the country. (09)