Megawati inaugurates ambassador to Japan
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Senior diplomat Irsan Abdul Gani was finally sworn in as the Indonesian Ambassador to Japan on Wednesday, ending a complicated, almost year-long appointment process.
In a ceremony at the State Palace, President Megawati Soekarnoputri inaugurated Irsan along with Amin Rianom and Hardikun Supandar, who will take ambassadorial posts in Turkey/Azerbaijan and Algeria respectively.
The House of Representatives, who according to the amended Constitution, has the authority to scrutinize ambassadorial candidates, did not recommend the three for the posts in June last year.
Article 13 of the Constitution requires the government to hear the House's opinion before naming an ambassador.
"The inauguration confirmed there has been no more objections on the part of the House. We have agreed that they deserve the posts," Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said after the ceremony.
The absence of an Indonesian ambassador to Japan for such a long time contradicts the fact that Japan is one of Indonesia's major trade partners, sources of investment and foreign aid donor.
The three new ambassadors were among eight ambassadorial candidates who did not win the House's support during the election process last year.
Irsan was considered inappropriate by the House because he was close to the retirement age of 55 and he had been posted as the Indonesian ambassador to the Netherlands.
Hassan said that to prevent such a snag in future, he suggested both the government and the House seek common criteria to appoint ambassadors.
"There are a few things that should be regulated, for example the maximum age and how long a person has served as an ambassador are not issues in the appointment of ambassadors by other countries throughout the world," he said.
The minister said the inauguration of the new ambassadors should not be perceived as the government ignoring the House's opinion.
"Of course not. We took the House's recommendation into consideration and only four of the eight problematic candidates finally received a green light," Hassan stressed.
A source at the foreign ministry said another diplomat who would likely pass the House hurdle was Rezlan Izhar Jenie, who had been nominated as Indonesia's permanent representative to the United Nations in New York.
"He is slated to leave for New York around May or April," the source told The Jakarta Post earlier this week.
The House said Rezlan, who is his late 40s, was too young to take the job, despite his commendable diplomatic performance. He is now the director for America at the foreign ministry.
Hassan said the government was fully aware of the Constitution that required the House's recommendation in the selection of ambassadors, but underlined that the President still had the prerogative to appoint Indonesia's representatives overseas.
Currently the House is also processing another 17 ambassadorial candidates, including Susanto Pudjomartono, former chief editor of the Post for Australia, former defense minister Juwono Sudarsono for England, and the current ambassador to Belgium, Sulaiman Abdulmanan, for New Zealand.