Seemann, an ambassador of education

Seemann, an ambassador of education

Christina Schott, Contributor, Jakarta

Diplomats come and go. They usually do not stay in any one
country longer than the term of their posts and are hardly seen
again. But Heinrich Seemann is a diplomat who came back.

Only two years after the former German ambassador to Indonesia
left the country in 2000, and although he was ready to retire
from the diplomatic service at 65 years of age, he returned to
Jakarta last year to help improve the Indonesian educational
system, this time as an advisor to the Sampoerna Foundation.

"I am a craftsman. I cannot just sit and do nothing. And for
Indonesia, it is really worth it to keep on working -- this
country gave me a second home. Sometimes I feel as if I belong to
these people and so feel challenged when there is something
wrong. And in regards the education here, there is a lot going
wrong which has to be worked on," Seemann said.

Born in Stuttgart, the capital of Germany's southwestern
province of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Heinrich Seemann grew up in the
harsh climate of the second World War and post-war Germany. Since
his mother was from the French-German border region of Alsace and
later was very active in organizing educational exchanges to
England, he learned about intercultural relations during his
childhood.

"When I joined the Foreign Office, it was rather not out of
the wish to travel and see the world, but to do something for
intercultural understanding and the abolition of opposites -- to
avert anything like this war ever happening again," he said.

When he was appointed Ambassador to Indonesia in 1994, Seemann
already had a long, successful career in the foreign office of
nearly 30 years.

After entering the diplomatic service in 1965, his first posts
were in Chicago and at the German embassies in India, Nepal and
Tokyo. From 1974 on, he served eight years as head of the foreign
policy section in the office of the federal president, and then
became the German Ambassador to Mali. In 1990, he was appointed
the chief of protocol of the German government, then was sent to
Indonesia.

"When I came here, I did not know much more about the country
than any other German who came on holiday, and Bali," he
confessed. "I knew that Indonesia was a huge country with a lot
of people living there. But how huge the real impact and weight
of this country, I learned only during my work here."

And he learned quickly, not only about Indonesia's politics
and economy, but also its history and socialization as well as
the meaning of tolerance and respect. He also learned about the
people and its diversity, and certainly, about its food, arts and
culture and beautiful natural environment. He loves fried noodles
and chili sauce, the music of composer Slamet Abdul Syukur and
the sculptures of Dolorosa Sinaga, and the temples and volcanoes
of Central Java.

When the crisis hit in 1998, Seemann's term as ambassador was
already over. But the German government asked him to stay on
longer, since he already knew everyone -- the old and new
politicians, as well as Indonesian society and its mentality.

"In all countries I was sent to, I tried to empathize as much
as possible. But in no other country did I spend as much time as
in Indonesia, so my empathy became deeper. After a while, one
adapts to the culture and becomes close to the people. I saw
people die and babies being born, I witnessed the end of a regime
and the start of a new era in this country. Even my children see
their time here as the most formative experience of their youth,"
the father of five said.

One of Seemann's main issues in Indonesia, from the start, was
education.

Learning from American and Australian universities, he
reinforced the image of Germany among Indonesian students by
promoting its advantages at educational fairs and other events.
This was probably the reason why the Sampoerna Foundation asked
him to become an advisor to its program, newly founded in 2001,
to support education in Indonesia.

The former ambassador was busy with organizing the first
training program for young diplomats from the Islamic world ever
held by the Foreign Office in Germany when he received the
invitation from Putera Sampoerna, president of PT HM Sampoerna
Tbk, one of the largest cigarette companies in Indonesia.

"I decided to work for them when Sampoerna told me that he had
received so much from Indonesia that he felt he had to give
something back. That impressed me," Seemann said.

"The quality of education in Indonesia has suffered a lot. We
really have to do something about it, since this problem is a
huge source of social unrest. A democracy needs a firm ground and
that's what we aim to build."

The Sampoerna Foundation has provided scholarships to around
9,000 high school students throughout Indonesia, all of whom are
from financially disadvantaged families. The foundation also
offers academic scholarships for exemplary students to study at
one of the top national universities or in business
administration studies in the U.S.

Besides sharing his experiences with the foundation, Seemann
also works to widen its network to Europe.

"In education, any result can only be seen in the long term,
and we are still at the beginning. But I really wish to achieve a
visible change. For this, we urgently need support from other
organizations or individuals that want to cooperate in a
nationwide educational network."

Aside from his goals for education, Heinrich Seemann has
another aim: Strengthening German-Indonesian relations and
understanding in all areas.

As ambassador, he was not only the co-founder of the German
Centre in Jakarta, but also the co-founder of the German-
Indonesian Forum for Economy and Technology and the German-
Indonesian Medical Association.

The detail-loving researcher has also written two books on
Indonesia, one on German-Indonesian relations during the Dutch
colonial era and one on the role of Indonesia in German
literature and fine arts.

"Until the 19th century, Indonesia was much more present in
the German conscious than it is today. This country, though, is
situated at a very important intersection of world politics,
especially concerning religion," Seemann said, "Therefore, there
has to be something done to revive its international
recognition."