New hope for RI's diplomacy

New hope for RI's diplomacy

This is the first of two articles on the development of
Indonesia's diplomacy prepared on a personal basis by Widjoseno
Sastroamidjojo, a staff member of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's diplomacy on East Timor during the
last 23 years of the New Order administration often collided with
the continuing development of international values, particularly
those in decolonization and human rights.

Consequently, the diplomacy created a negative image that was
very costly and burdensome to the conduct of Indonesia's foreign
policy, and the Indonesian society considered it as a complete
failure by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' diplomatic efforts to
advance the country's interest in international forums.

Actually, such an accusation against the ministry was not
entirely true, given the fact that until 1982, Indonesia's
diplomacy had successfully managed to gain trust from the
majority of United Nations (UN) members, even at a time when
decolonization was becoming a very dominant issue. The trust was
reflected in a steady decrease in the number of states opposing
the integration of East Timor into Indonesia, until the day when
the East Timor issue was deferred from the agenda of the UN
General Assembly. In fact, the prospect of finding a
comprehensive solution to the East Timor problem through wide-
ranging autonomy was initiated in 1994, but it was overruled
because of political considerations.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said that "two-thirds
of all the existing problems on East Timor happened within the
country." That implicitly meant that the foreign policy was
merely an extension of the domestic policy and relied heavily on
how the domestic policy was played out.

Relations between both domestic and foreign policies should
have been in parallel or harmony but in practice, the
implementation of the domestic policy in the territory frequently
deviated from what the government had planned and from what had
been assertively promoted abroad by Indonesian diplomats (in
terms of human rights).

Given this unfavorable condition, as well as the technological
advancements in communications, the diplomats often faced a great
deal of difficulties in defending Indonesia's position, no matter
how brilliant they were. Besides, in today's era of
globalization, it is very unwise to believe in an old saying that
"a diplomat is someone sent abroad to lie for his country".

The recent fundamental change in Indonesia's political
situation, which marked the beginning of the reform era, has
paved the way for significant reforms in almost every aspect of
political life in the country, and developments thus far are
showing encouraging signals for the future.

Within the realm of foreign policy, such winds of change could
be best seen through the government's flexibility in dealing with
the East Timor issue, marking a new start at the turn of the
century through the offering of two possible alternatives for the
territory: wide-ranging autonomy or independence from the
Republic of Indonesia.

If the first alternative of wide-ranging autonomy was
accepted, then the UN, through its General Assembly, would have
to rescind East Timor from the List of Non-self Governing
Territories. This means that the East Timor issue should no
longer be an international problem (even though this does not
guarantee that independent fighter Ramos Horta will end his
attempts to bring the settled issue back to surface).

Similarly, if the first alternative is rejected by the parties
concerned, and the second option of the East Timor release is
eventually approved by the People's Consultative Assembly in its
general session later this year, Indonesia will turn over the
territory to the UN, which should reinstate its status of a non-
self governing territory as it had been before its "integration"
into Indonesia in 1976. In short, whatever the end result might
turn out, both alternatives would certainly alleviate Indonesia's
political burden, and concurrently enhance its diplomatic
maneuverability.

Through those alternatives, the current government has indeed
shown the world its true position of openness, sincerity,
flexibility and cooperation in trying to find the best
comprehensive solution for all parties concerned in the East
Timor question.