Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces major revamp

Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces major revamp

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be revamped next year
with the elimination of the two key directorates general: those
for sociopolitical affairs and for economic relations.

In their place, there will be three directorates general with
responsibilities based on geographical areas.

Announcing the planned restructuring, Minister of Foreign
Affairs Hassan Wirayuda told reporters on Saturday night that
changes were designed to improve the performance of the ministry.

The designation based on geographical areas would allow these
units to be more focused in their work, he said.

There will be one directorate general dealing with Association
of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) affairs, reflecting the importance
Indonesia continues to attach to this regional grouping.

Another directorate general will deal with Asia, Pacific and
Africa affairs; Europe and the Americas become the responsibility
of one directorate general.

In addition, two separate directorates general will be created
to deal with multilateral affairs, respectively for political and
economic issues.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri signed the decree approving
the changes on Oct. 10 but the details were only made public on
Saturday at the end of a four-day meeting involving all 113
Indonesian ambassadors who were summoned home from their posts.

In all, the number of first-echelon positions in the new
structure has been bolstered from the current eight to 10.

Hassan told the media briefing held after the ambassadors'
meeting that the ministry was now in the process of nominating
the officials to fill the first-echelon posts.

President Megawati, in her address to the meeting on
Wednesday, urged the ambassadors to work to restore the image and
credibility of the country abroad, particularly among investors
and foreign aid donors.

The endless crises, and Indonesia's failure to address them,
had severely undermined Indonesia's international reputation to
the point that some countries even looked down on Indonesia, she
said.

Hassan said he had told the ambassadors of the need to improve
their role in servicing and protecting Indonesian citizens who
lived and worked abroad.

"Indonesian embassies are not ivory towers," he said.