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."