Indonesian Diplomacy Flexing Its Wings Qualitatively

(News Today) - Indonesian diplomacy is spreading its wings qualitatively whereas the government only has a limited number of diplomats for assignment to overseas posts.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry currently oversees a total of 1,800 diplomats and about two thirds of them are serving in overseas posts, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Triyono Wibowo on Wednesday.

The second-in-command at Pejambon (Foreign Affairs Ministry building) added there surely was a lack of diplomatic human resources experienced by the ministry vis-a-vis the ever widening front of the country’s diplomatic missions. Yet, the show must go on, Wibowo hinted.

"As a comparison, the United States has about 3,000 diplomats only for its embassy in Cairo, Egypt," said the Vice Foreign Minister, adding that Washington places those many diplomatic personnel due to the many interests the U.S. has and need to be handled properly.

Being exposed to the minimum personnel quantitatively, Wibowo added, the Pejambon has been juggling the need of personnel with the degree of urgency for each post.

"We put the right personnel for the right job. This way helps us overcoming the personnel shortfall for the time being," he revealed. Wibowo said the government put the emphasis on the qualitative capabilities of each diplomats, whereby a diplomat assigned to overseas post has been trained to be able to handle various tasks.

Therefore, an Indonesian mission overseas does not need many diplomatic personnel. Vice Foreign Minister Wibowo was speaking at the Pejambon after Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa established 11 new Indonesian missions overseas.

The new missions are the Embassy of Indonesia in Baku (Azerbaijan), the Embassy of Indonesia in Manama (Bahrain), the Embassy of Indonesia in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), the Embassy of Indonesia in Quito (Ecuador), the Embassy of Indonesia in Astana (Kazakhstan), the Embassy of Indonesia in Zagreb (Croatia), the Embassy of Indonesia in Muscat (Oman), the Embassy of Indonesia in Panama City (Panama), the Embassy of Indonesia in Maputo (Mozambique), the Consulate of Indonesia in Tawau (Malaysia) and Indonesian Permanent Mission for ASEAN in Jakarta.

The Baku ambassadorial post is filled by Agus Trimartono on charge d’affairs rank, the Maputo post is Bagus Hendraning Kobarsyih, Manama (Agus Sanim), Muscat (Abdul Mun’im), Panama City (Johannes Bosco, Quito (Amnal Rachman), Sarajevo (Sutadi Hadiwiyoto), Zagreb (Simson Ginting) and Tawau (Widoratno Rahendra Djaya).

The commitment

Minister Natalegawa said in the event that Indonesia had opened the 11 new diplomatic missions in a move to bolster up its commitment on strengthening cooperation both on bilateral and multilateral levels. With these new missions, now Indonesia has 130 representative offices.

The ceremony attended by House of Commission I, House of Representatives (DPR-RI) Mahfuz Siddik, former Foreign Affairs Minister Alwi Shihab who is Presidential Representative for Organization of Islamic Congress (OIC), ambassadors and media leaders.

"This is a concrete form and commitment of the Indonesian government on the importance of international relations, both on bilateral and multilateral levels," said Minister Natalegawa at the opening ceremony of the new Indonesian embassies and representative offices, at Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Natalegawa added the opening the new diplomatic missions, which now becomes 130 across the world, was also a concrete form of the roles by the Indonesian government in efforts on providing protection to Indonesian citizens overseas.

"At the same time, the opening of the new diplomatic mission is aimed at contributing to the Indonesian economic growth. It opens the opportunities for cooperation in the economic and energy (sector)," he pointed out.

He also noted on the ever importance role of the media that has made the world into a global village. In this age of information openness, Minister Natalewagawa said, it was very importance that (a country) to have the capabilities to analysis the available information from the widespread sources.

The establishment of Indonesian embassies in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, according to the Foreign Minister, is expected to enhance the ability in recognizing opportunities for cooperation, particularly in the field of energy resources.

Regarding to the establishment of Embassies in Oman and Bahrain, Indonesia hopes to strengthen the relationship with Gulf countries, where economy and investment grow rapidly.

These countries also become a hub for Indonesia to their neighboring countries. Related to the establishment of Indonesian Permanent Mission for ASEAN in Jakarta, the Minister expected that the interests of Indonesia in ASEAN can be further consolidated, particularly in carrying out its duties as the Chairman of the ASEAN in 2011.

Strategic plan

With regard to the future move, the ministry has drafted a strategic plan and long-term plan guided by the National Long Term Development Plan (RPJPN) for 2005-2025 and the National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMN) for 2010-2014 as its foundation.

In addition to specifying the achievements in the implementation of tasks and authorities in the preceding period, the strategic plan also sets forth the vision, missions, purposes, strategies, policies, programs, and activities as well as the performance targets and funding which are to be implemented by all working units in the Ministry for the subsequent five-year period.

It provides guidelines for the implementation of tasks and functions and a tool to measure the efforts carried out to improve the performance of the Ministry in line with Indonesian principles of diplomacy. The past constraints and problems which have been managed in the preceding period should become a benchmark in determining the purposes and goals of foreign relations for five years ahead.

Indonesian diplomacy has demonstrated strengthened performance in the bilateral, regional and multilateral relations. Efforts in multilateral and regional diplomacy that Indonesia makes should be intensified by solid bilateral diplomacy.

Indonesian foreign policy will actively seek to improve relations with countries in Asia Pacific, Africa, America, and Europe and bring it to a higher level to achieve the country’s interest.

The foreign policy should reflect democratic transformation which has taken place at home. Hereafter, it is necessary to place an emphasis on the importance of support and participation from all stakeholders for the effective Indonesian foreign policy in strengthening its position at the international level, according to the strategic plan.

Source : kompas

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