Match words with actions, experts tell Megawati

Match words with actions, experts tell Megawati

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Experts here praised on Wednesday President Megawati
Soekarnoputri's visit to the Rome-based Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) and the Vatican, but also urged her to provide
similar excellent leadership in dealing with domestic problems.

Political observer Ikrar Nusa Bakti of the Indonesian
Institute of Science pointed out that the good image should be
supported by similar actions back home to maintain peace and
order.

"For example her promises to the Pope to bring peace to
Indonesia will ring hollow if she does not issue policies dealing
with grassroots problems in conflict-torn areas to stop the
fighting," Ikrar said.

He emphasized that good diplomacy with world leaders should go
hand-in-hand with domestic problems in the country.

"No leader can provide complete guarantees for their citizens,
especially in this era of global terrorism, if they neglect the
many important domestic issues and focus only on foreign
diplomacy," Ikrar said.

Megawati left here on Saturday for a two-week visit to five
countries: Italy, the Vatican, the United Kingdom, the Czech
Republic and Slovakia. She is slated to be back home on June 21.

The trip was organized just one month after her last overseas
tour to China, South and North Korea and India, and was the
second this year.

A few hours after her departure, bombs rocked the capital, the
first such terror bombs in Jakarta since she became President in
July last year.

She also left behind volatile situations in Maluku and Aceh,
where religious violence and bloodshed go nearly unchecked, in
part, due to a lack of law enforcement in the war-ravaged areas.

Perhaps the most ironic occurrence, is that days after she
complained about the foreign debts which were choking the
country, her government on Wednesday signed a new letter of
intent with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for yet another
loan of more than US$300 million.

Despite the lack of supporting conditions, Ikrar still
considered Megawati's speech at the FAO summit as "a significant
disclosure to show the world that Indonesia had difficulties in
fulfilling the demands of donors."

"It is high time for Indonesia to raise the issue of the
country's farmers who are facing a lot of financial difficulties
against cheaper imported rice," he said.

Former minister of foreign affairs Ali Alatas supported
Ikrar's opinions, saying that attending the FAO summit was the
best way to attract international attention to the country's
problems.

"The FAO meeting is very important and Indonesia stands to
benefit a lot if we attend," he said.

Ikrar also praised the meeting between Megawati as the leader
of the world's most populous Muslim country and Pope John Paul II
in the Vatican.

"It was a clear symbol that Indonesia puts aside religious
differences in its foreign policy and will have good
relationships with its new neighbor of East Timor, which is
predominantly Catholic," he said.