Reform in diplomacy

Demands for reform abound these days. One demand regards the country's diplomacy.

The success of the ASEM conference in London was marred by Portugal, which succeeded in cornering Indonesia by "borrowing" the UN secretary-general's hand at a time when a number of East Timorese were demonstrating at the British Embassy in Jakarta.

Feigning a love of peace, Portugal was apparently successful in influencing world opinion, as if the United Nations had a strong wish to have Indonesian and Portuguese high officials, present at the ASEM conference, meet with each other to discuss the East Timor problem. Kofi Annan's reputation as a peacemaker who succeeded in reconciling the U.S. and Iraq seemingly made a reference to trap and corner the Indonesian delegation.

The Portuguese side, which knew the Indonesian side would certainly reject the invitation, had a golden chance to disappoint the peacemaker and at the same time present Indonesia's stance in an unfavorable light to the rest of the world. Here Portugal scored a point in the field of diplomacy. On the other hand, the Indonesian delegation seemed unprepared in facing such a "sudden" situation.

While Indonesia has shown itself far from being pragmatic and proactive, Portugal has silently managed to score points in the field of diplomacy, e.g. in influencing Sen. Patrick Kennedy of the U.S., in making use of President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, etc., with the final objective to form world opinion that these days the colonialist in East Timor is no longer Portugal, but Indonesia.

Compared to the struggle for West Irian to be integrated into Indonesia requiring about 13 years, the fight to include East Timor juridically into Indonesia is taking much longer. The procedure does not seem to be sufficiently suited to the demands of the times. It may need revision and reform in order to make it better directed, more effective and efficient.

H. IFRAD SUKAMTO

Jakarta