Bridging the East-West divide
Bridging the East-West divide
Fresh from attending President Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono’s State of the Nation Address, Turkish Ambasador to Indonesia Murat Adali is full of praise at how far Indonesia has come since the late 1980s, when he previously served as Second, then First Secretary, at the Jakarta mission.
Adali is one of the very few current mission chiefs who previously worked in the capital earlier in his diplomatic career. He says that when he formally presented his credentials to the President, he boldly departed from the prepared script that most incoming diplomats normally rely on in order to avoid saying anything that might be regretted later. “I told the President I’d actually volunteered to return to Jakarta,” he says, in almost conspiratorial tones.
It’s not difficult to see why. Both Turkey and Indonesia, formerly branded by many with the somewhat undiplomatic moniker “third-world country,” are now perceived as strong, emerging economies with commanding presences in the New World Order of the 21st century. While Brazil, Russia, India and China are currently attracting the most attention, Indonesia, Turkey and South Africa are not that far behind
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