Jakarta needs 'flexible' figure in Canberra

Jakarta needs 'flexible' figure in Canberra

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia must appoint someone "flexible" as its
next ambassador to Australia, Harold Crouch, a senior Australian
scholar on Indonesia, said yesterday.

Crouch, the author of the 1978 book The Army and Politics in
Indonesia, said it is not a question of whether Indonesia sends a
person with a military or civilian background to fill the post in
Canberra.

"Australians need a more open, flexible figure like August
Marpaung and Sabam Siagian," he said, referring of two former
Indonesian ambassadors to Australia who were considered
successful in their posts despite the often strenuous relations
between the two countries.

"Siagian loved to invite reporters over for a beer ... the
(media) reports remained critical, but never personally attacking
Siagian," he said.

Crouch, a senior fellow at the Research School of Pacific and
Asian Studies at the Australian National University, is in
Jakarta to attend a seminar on the history of the Indonesian
revolution organized by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences
(LIPI).

The late Marpaung was a senior Army officer when he assumed
his ambassadorial post in the 1980s. Sabam Siagian was a senior
journalist before he was assigned to the post in 1991; he is
scheduled to end his term this month.

Indonesia last week withdrew the nomination of Lt. Gen. (ret.)
H.B.L. Mantiri to replace Sabam in Canberra after an outcry in
Australia, fanned by remarks he made in 1992 regarding tragic
events in East Timor the previous year.

Mantiri, who was not personally involved in the incidents in
East Timor which claimed the lives of more than 50 civilians,
told the Indonesian Editor magazine in 1992 that the military had
acted properly in handling the situation.

An internal military investigation later found errors in
judgment and procedures by the military.

Indonesia has said that it will leave the Canberra post vacant
until further notice, a move widely seen as downgrading the
diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Indonesian officials point out that Mantiri's nomination had
already been accepted by Canberra before the public outcry began.

Crouch explained that the anger over Mantiri's nomination was
not so much a result of his attachment to the military, but more
because the Australian media uncovered the Editor interview.

"Mantiri himself wasn't helpful at all in his following
comments," Crouch said. "But nothing could have been done anyway.
It would have been really disastrous (if he had been appointed)."

Crouch described Rear Marshall Roesman, who served as
ambassador before Sabam, as "quite hopeless, (because) he would
say things which were quite untrue."

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said yesterday there
were no new developments since his announcement that Indonesia
would leave the Canberra post vacant.

"The mission will be led by the charge d'affaires," he told
reporters at the State Palace.

Asked if he felt the latest affair would disrupt relations
between the two countries, he said that he hoped relations were
strong enough to withstand the current setback.

"The relations are quite strong being supported by already
substantive ties so they will be able continue without being
affected by this new development.

"This condition is the result of the efforts we have put forth
in the last several years, to give weight to our cooperation so
that if some tremors or incidents like this occurred, relations
in general would not be affected." (anr/emb)