RI Embassy and professionalism

Referring to Masli Arman's letter (The Jakarta Post, Aug. 31, 1995) on the lack of professionalism and the diffidence in the staff members of the Indonesian Embassy and the tendency to isolate themselves by mixing only with Indonesians during the 1950s in Australia, that similar mediocre performance is taking place in the 1990s.

My assignment in Australia as first secretary to the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra from 1954 to 1958 coincided with the time when the question of West Irian was at its peak in Australia, under prime minister Menzies' Conservative government which supported the Netherlands and opposed the return of Irian Jaya to Indonesia. The Australian press and mass media were one with the Australian government's stand and this rendered our job in the Embassy more difficult and much heavier.

But the Australian people and press were at the same time keen to know Indonesia from different dimensions and were open-minded enough and ready to listen to the Indonesian opinion and point of view. Thus, I had the opportunity to give talks in Perth, West Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, and Hobart, Tasmania, upon the invitation of different organizations and bodies. Even my wife was separately requested to give talks at the Women's Graduate Association in Canberra, 1955, National Council of Women, Country Women's Association in Launceston, Tasmania, in 1955, in Lorne, Victoria in 1956, and Wollogong in New South Wales in 1958.

On July 13, 1956, the Overseas Students Association of the University of Technology in Sydney, New South Wales, invited me to give a talk on Indonesia's claims to West Irian, where an incident took place. I had barely started my talk when a group of Australians heckled me with shouts and insults. One man rushed forward to attack me by hurling the rostrum which missed me narrowly as I deflected it just in time. The six others who joined him threw chairs at us and snatched from my hand my notes and threw them on the floor.

Although the chairman of the meeting called them to order they continued to heckle and shout insults. Witnessing the situation, the students came to help me and fought off the hecklers who fled just before the police arrived. I then continued with my talk and answered questions at the end. The incident was well covered by the press.

Apart from the above mentioned activities, throughout the years 1954 to 1958, the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra was active in introducing different aspects of Indonesia to the Australian people through film and slide shows, regional dress displays and cooking demonstration, Indonesian dances, gamelan and angklung music, etc. through the yearly Independence Day, Aug. 17 and Kartini Day celebrations. Television was still in its infancy, however, and we were asked to give talks through the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. There was never a dull moment in those years I assure you, Mr. Masli Arman, for we had also hundreds of Indonesian students who were in Australia studying under the Colombo Plan.

It was at this time also that our Cultural Attache Mr. Supangat and I sponsored the teaching of the Indonesian language at Canberra University College and in this connection I had the honor of giving lessons in Bahasa Indonesia to Sir Alan Brown who was then the Head of the Prime Minister's Department.

B. UBANY

Jakarta