Yesterday, President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY) made a last minute cancellation of his visit to Holland.
SBY told reporters that he canceled the visit because a Court in The Hague examined a petition filed by a rebel group in southern part of Maluku province (RMS), requesting for the arrest of SBY for human right violation. He said that he is not afraid to be arrested, but he felt that such Court proceedings insults the national pride of Indonesia.
The Dutch government regretted the cancellation, saying that it has offered SBY diplomatic immunity against criminal prosecutions.
Meanwhile, the Court in The Hague has rejected the RMS's petition, due to which RMS plan to file an appeal against said ruling.
SBY's said decision was supported by government officials and members of his Democrat Party, while political observers and the opposition regarded it as an undiplomatic action that draw world attention on the RMS as a tiny rebel group. They questioned the credibility of our inteligence agency and the presidential Security Unit (Paspampres) in preparing for the visit.
Considering the above, I felt that the said cancellation has given RMS the biggest benefit since it declared independence and crushed in 1950 i.e. world attention they really need right now as a tiny unknown rebel organization.
From now on, I hope that the government would be more careful in handling such matters, e.g by acquiring professional advice from world class experts in international relation and law.
Related acrticles :
- Breaking News: 'Insulted' Indonesian President Cancels Dutch State Visit (The Jakarta Globe)
- RMS admits defeat, plans to file appeal after SBY rearrange Dutch visit (The Jakarta Post)
- Republik Maluku Selatan (Wikipedia)
8 comments:
cancellation is quite reasonable because in order to maintain national honor ..
The President's nationalism can't be questioned. But as far as I can see it was not at stake.
If states of head cancel state visits each time a tiny ( politically and military) insignificant group in the hosting country wants to make an oppositional gesture, hardly any more state visit will take place.
Although of course SBY is entitled to make his own decisions he in this process of course also embarrassed a government and a state of head ( Queen Beatrix) of a befriended country.
To me the cancellation by the way would have been much more understandable if it had been because of the imminent new Dutch government being a coalition supported by Geert Wilders.
untuk kali ini aku salut sama SBY yg berani tegas untuk menolak undangan Belanda.. karena situasinya juga gak mendukung... dan aku harap itu bisa berlaku pula dengan hubungan indonesia dan malaysia....
Sukses slalu Sob.. pembahasan yug menarik hhe...
NKRI harga mati.. Thanks Multibrand! (H. Nizam sukses sll)
pak beye kok terkesan lebay ya..:)
@Asadisae,
I agree, but it would be a lot much better if it is done elegantly.
@Colson,
Actually postponement of visit is not a strange thing, as long as it is done in an elegant way, not emotional, not as he was about to get on board a plane.
For example, more than one month before his scheduled visit to Indonesia, President Obama has informed us that he postponed his visit to Indonesia.
@Ferdinand,
Saya menghargai pendapat anda.
Terima kasih atas pujiannya.
@Dee,
You are welcome.
@TUKANG CoLoNG,
Kesannya demikian.
@ Harry...
You know what I think on this one, so no need to repeat in detail here and now ;)
I am not sure that there was any real elegant way to cancel this one, but jumping up and down on the spot about Geert Wilders might have made more sense in terms of making a point (I think Colson has a point on that idea).
There was no national honor or pride at stake here. That, my friend, is political spin designed to deflect from the realities of bad judgment and even worse advice.
What was at stake was Indonesia's credibility as a fully-functioning nation in a global community. I will leave that one to others to decide how Indonesia scores on that front.
I will end with this idea. It was not all that long ago that members of the Democrat Party were talking up SBY as an international statesman and a contender for the top job at the UN. I wonder how this an ever happen if the man is too afraid to travel to foreign countries because a fringe separatist group lodges a petition in a court of law.
Sad, really!
Hi Rob,
I am not sure whether the prez would want to "use" Geert Wilder's anti Islam as a reason. It would not be effective to arouse the emotion Indonesian Muslim who are mostly moderates, compared to nationalism factor.
I heard some people said on TV that it would be much better if he use the natural disaster in West Papua as a reason.
Hopefully next time he would not give in to rebels' pressure again.
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