----------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe?, send your mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with body mail: "signoff indonews"
need more help?, send your mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with body mail: "info refcard"
----------------------------------------------------------
KOLOM SUPANGKAT:
THE VICIOUS CIRCLE OF ALATAS DIPLOMACY IN THE UN
Who is Ali Alatas?
The Indonesian Observer wrote that Foreign Minister Alatas has been
outsmarted, outmaneuvered by his East Timor nemesis, Ramos Horta who got the
Nobel
Peace Prize that let down Alatas and shocked and outraged the Indonesians.
Kristiadi from the CSIS exploded in his criticism that one man foreign
ministry of
Ramos Horta has defeated the whole bunch of Alatas' Departemen Luar Negeri
(Deplu) in the case of the Nobel Prize.
In his Department, Alatas is the real boss, the most senior diplomat around.
He
is the Bhagawan of Indonesia's foreign policy because all Indonesian senior
dip-
lomats died out. When he was Secetary of Vice President Adam Malik he learn-
ed lessons, adding news skill to his talents.
I know him personally when he was still a rank and file diplomat as Attache
during the parliamentary regime under Ali Sastroamidjojo. He has dedication
to his job and is a fast learner. He knows his place in the Indonesian
community
as member of a minority Arab community, he is patient waiting in the wings for
quiet some time, letting his seniors go up in rank. His time finally came when
he was appointed as Foreign Minister by Presiden Suharto. He started his
career as First Secretary in the new order in the Indonesian Embassy in
Washington DC where had the opportunity to greet President Suharto during his
first visit to the US in 1970.
His jurist background made him good in legal argumentation. Suharto liked him
very much. But he denied of being part of the KKN (Kolusi, Korupsi, Nepotisme)
alleged by Geoge Junus Aditjondro even backed up with data.
He did his best as UN Ambassador, shadowing every movement of Ramos Hor-
ta in the Secretariat, in the General Assembly.
Then he became ovezealous trying too hard to satisfy Suharto with all kinds of
international Summits to put him on the lead: the Nonaligned, the Islamic
Conference,
the Group of 77. Nonalignedment is so irrelevant to the contemorary
international politics.But Alatas managed to dope stupid and ignorant Suharto
with all kinds of nonsense, so he got the needed big money to campaign for
East Timor, to stage the Nonaligned Summit, the Islamic Conference in Jakarta
boosting the dictator's ego skyhigh, eventhough the campaign and movements are
totally good for nothing as far
as the national interests is concerned.
The New East Timor Policy
Suddenly the Asian monetary crises had exposed every single rotten things in
our political, economic and social life.
Suharto went down, Indonesia couldn't even afford to feed their own people,
there
are now 130 million poor, 40 million unemployed, 10 million in hunger oedema,
the economy is dying, heinous crime goes hand in hand with terror and anarchy,
violence sprung up like trees and grass in springs.
The CGI, particularly the IMF and the World Bank are not blind and they saw
East
Timor as one of the many sources of waste, mismanagement and corruption, they
demanded to get rid of it if Jakarta wants more foreign loans. Habibie needs
more
and more loans in order to survive in addition to the unpaid balance of about
$200
billion .And this is the beginning of the new East Timor new policy.
However, the Habibie regime lacks legitimacy and Alatas knew it all the time.
Therefore they created two kinds of policy: one for domestic use only and the
other
one for foreign consumption brought about by Alatas into the UN.
For this particular reason we don't have to wonder why Alatas was moving in a
vicious circle: first he said that he wants to exit gracefully if the autonomy
was rejected, then
he said vaguely that he accept the alternative of referendum like balloting
but should be done by the United Nations.
Reuter correspondent has been had and wrote "the big scoop"that there is a
break-
through of balloting". Even Foreign Minister Jaime Gama was misled by the
generalities of Alatas statement about the balloting and announced the
progress which
he could not sustain afterwards.
Later in the press conference Alatas clarified that he rejected referendum or
ballot-
ting all along because it will instigate the civil war. The only possibility
for him to
find out the will of the 800.000 people is through consultation of 50 to 5000
people.
With this statement Alatas betrayed himself that he is not a democrat but an
oli-
garch and this is not acceptable by Portugal and everybody in the UN system
in-
cluding Kofi Annan and Jamsheed Marker.
The vicious circle
This is the vicious circle: independence will be proposed to the new regime if
the
autonomy offer is rejected. Rejection should be determined by consultation of
a
few thousands and never by referendum, plebiscite, or any other system of
ballot-
ting and should be done by the UN without Indonesia's involvement.
But the UN will have to refuse to oblige because it is not democratic,
Jamsheed
Marker insisted on referendum as the only way to find out the will of the
people
for self-determination.
In the final analysys there will be no independence, there will be no proposal
by this
regime to the elected regime for independence of East Timor because nobody in
the world would know the will of 800.000 people without referendum.
Alatas lacks legitimacy to make decision on East Timor, even to propose inde-
pendence or otherwise to the legitimate regime later on simply because the Ha-
bibie regime itself lacks legitimacy.
Indonesian duplicity in UN
Indonesian duplicity in UN diplomacy is not the first time. When the
Decolonization
Committe was about to adopt the Indonesian draft resolution on the self-
determination
of East Timor on December 5, 1975, President Suharto was preparing to invade
Dilli
which he did on December 7, 1975. The Decolonization Committee chaired by
Salim
Salim of Tanzania was outraged, he and the whole delegation condemned
Indonesia
for duplicity.
Now Alatas was negotiating for wide ranging autonomy while denying the reports
by
both foreign media and even by the Tempo magazine that the military commander
distributed guns to the militia, he also hyped up the possibility of civil war
if refrendum
was accepted.
Tripartite became a charade
I would say that the Tripartite became a charade by Alatas, veiled by all
kinds of
tricks to avoid taking responsibility of the problem because they know their
own
shortcomings. It is absolutely a waste of time and it should either be stopped
or
postponed until the newly elected regime is established in August.
Another alternative is the UN to take over the matter into its hands, deploy
observers
to verify the withdrawal of Indonesian troops, the disarmament of all
iregulars from both sides, and let both the pro-independence and the pro
integration people set up their ad interim regime to supervise the referendum.
Joao Carrascalao agreed to this Balibo
formula with referendum in mind. I don't know about Horta, Mario Carrascalao,
and
others.
But there is indeed no other way humanly possible to achieve peace and
independence
in East Timor.
H.S. Hidayat Supangkat
The United Nations.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Didistribusikan tgl. 10 Feb 1999 jam 12:58:10 GMT+1
oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://www.Indo-News.com/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
