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.