---------------------------------------------------------- Visit Indonesia Daily News Online HomePage: http://www.indo-news.com/ and click banner our sponsor ---------------------------------------------------------- KOLOM SUPANGKAT: RP 1,3 TRILLION DEPLU BUDGET IS STILL EXTRAVAGANZA GRANDIOZO The Indonesian Foreign Ministry (Deplu) current budget of Rp 1.3 trillion to finance 111 diplomatic missions the world over is still unaffordable for a country that is practically penniless to pay its own national budget of Rp 218 trillion (almost US$ 28 billion) for which we had to panhandle to the IMF, ADB, World Bank, CGI notably after we got food aid from donors. Having to keep up to 111 diplomatic mission with the notorious formula of a com- pulsory gambler is a real "extravaganza grandiozo" at the time when we have 130 million impoverished, 40 million unemployed and 10 million hunger oedema people. Honestly it is unconsciounable. President Habibie has just inaugurated 15 new Ambassadors to fill in the vaccuum, eventhough there is only one member of ABRI (Armed Forces), Rear Admiral Tar- mizi Thaher for Oslo, the other six are dispatched to: Bratislava, Tashkent, Cara- cas, (perhaps Prabowo should go to Caracas where a rebellious Army officer was elected as President) Budapest, Prague, Khartoum. Why not cut down from 111 to 70? It is unquestionable that the other nine Ambassadors are dispatched to highly im- portant posts, but given the present economic crisis, they wouldn't have to close down the chanceries in the lesser countries. They could have sent "Charge d'Af- fairs" instead of Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary whose salaries and free extra bonus like Ambassadorial quality homes, limousines, chauffeur, etc. are unreasonably too costly for a "poor country" like Indonesia at this point. Remember that we had to borrow money to finance our Ambassadors in those six countries. We could have sent Charge d'Affairs instead of Ambassadors Exraordinary and Plenipotentiary to countries other than: ASEAN, Japan, China, Russia, Australia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, South Africa, Turkey, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, France, Great Brittain, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgi- um, the United States, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the United Nations. There are no more then 40 of them and we could send Charge d'Affairs to the other 30 countries or so. Why sticking to failures? Sending full Ambassadors and his staffs to promote our image in international politics or to boost our trade and tourism simply never worked because we never had the right people to do it. Besides, spending less is more economic than spending more with dubious trade or other promotions in mind judging the present "dead economy". Heaven knows when the time comes to practise the economic principle in our country, but right now we have to abandon our foreign policy based on the un- conscienable extravaganza grandiozo reminiscient of what we had been doing for the past 40 years. It is indeed too late but it is better too late than never. H.S. Hidayat Supangkat New York. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 20 Feb 1999 jam 13:18:15 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
