Restructuring at Pejambon
Restructuring at Pejambon
Pejambon, in Central Jakarta, is the spot where the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs is located. The main building, named the
Pancasila building, is considered a historical site since it was
there that Sukarno, who was later to become Indonesia's first
president, outlined his views on the foundations of the
yet-to-be-born independent state of Indonesia.
Interestingly, that building during the mid-19th century was
the residence of the military commander of the Netherlands East
Indies Army (KNIL), Bernhard Duke of Saksen-Weimar-Eisenach. It
became the site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1950, when
the Republic of the United States of Indonesia was established
with Mohammad Hatta as foreign minister as well as prime
minister.
Recently, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirajuda
announced a vast restructuring of the department that can rightly
be seen as the most drastic changes that have been undertaken
since the fall of president Sukarno's "guided democracy" regime
in 1966. The department has abandoned its function oriented
structure with separate director-generals for political affairs,
international economic relations and a mixed-bag directorate-
general for handling matters related to information, cultural
relations and social issues.
Under the present structure, specialists in different fields
will be assigned to directorate-generals in specific geographic
areas. Of course, in reality the changes involved are more
complex than outlined. Actually, though, this concept has been
planned and discussed for many years and ministries of foreign
affairs in a number of countries have applied structures similar
to or approaching this model. The fact, however, is that it was
Wirajuda who has taken the decisive step to implement the plan
and has started to implement it on a gradual basis.
Obviously, some fine tuning will be necessary in
implementation. For example, it can be noted even now that it is
not very realistic to assume that North America and Europe more
or less share the same interests. One could observe even at this
point the independent tendencies of a united Europe, which tends
to have its own approaches in tackling the various international
problems.
One does not need to be an astute observer of international
affairs to predict that the emergence of China as a key player on
the world stage combined with a weakening Japan will
significantly alter the global balance of power relations.
Consequently, it will be prudent for Indonesia's Ministry of
Foreign Affairs to make the necessary organizational adjustments
from time to time in order to improve its efficacy in enhancing
Indonesia's national interests in a constantly changing world.
Another encouraging development is that in step with this
restructuring, a new batch of diplomats in their mid-40s has been
appointed at Pejambon to head a number of directorates. This
means that a rejuvenation of expert staff is taking place which
naturally will enhance the ministry's working spirit.
The Ministry was in a virtual limbo for almost 20 months
during the reign of president Abdurrahman Wahid, when then
foreign minister Alwi Shihab was mostly busy as the president's
political trouble shooter. With the changes that are now taking
place in the ministry -- both in terms of organizational
restructuring and with the appointment of younger diplomats in
leadership positions -- we can at least say that something is now
stirring at Pejambon.