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.