JP/Duncan Graham

Very soon, as the new government sets its tone for the next five years, Nur Hassan Wirajuda will get a call from the Presidential Palace outlining his future.

Will he continue as foreign minister, a position he’s held for the past eight years? Or will he be deposited in some Jakarta cubicle composing reports destined for compost, or sentenced to a dysfunctional outpost where the climate is as extreme as the politics?

By all accounts, the cautious, slow-talking Dr. Hassan has done a good job since he was promoted by former president Megawati Soekarnoputri in 2001 and retained when Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took office in 2004.

He’s certainly handled some awkward moments adroitly, such as Australia accepting 43 Papuans who successfully claimed refugee status in 2006, a crisis that almost snapped the elastic links between the countries. Then there were the Bali bombings, the rise of Jemaah Islamiyah, Australian drug runners on death row and the 2004 tsunami.

The latest problem worrying Australia and New Zealand is the classification of halal meat exported to Indonesia. The MUI (Indonesian Ulema Council) wants to handle this without government involvement.

“This is a mechanical issue,” Dr Hassan said. “The MUI can set the standards but administration is the government’s role. More time is needed and the deadline has been extended till next year.”

By now, lesser men might have developed a nervous twitch every time an anxious aide approached with another crisis newsflash. But the 61-year-old has retained his equanimity.

“Internationally, Indonesia is held in high regard, the best it has ever been,” he said during an Australasian tour that included the Pacific Islands Forum in Queensland. “Indonesia is the world’s third largest democracy and has never been so free.”

His Australian counterpart Stephen Smith agrees. Earlier this year he introduced Dr. Hassan by saying “Indonesia [has] transformed to a modern, vibrant, tolerant democracy that is now quite rightfully taking its place in the world as a strong voice: a voice that reflects values and virtues and characteristics that we admire so much.”

Whether this glossy global image is thanks to the foreign minister or his urbane boss, or because Indonesia is rocketing into democracy without bloodshed and vigorously pursuing terrorism is another question.

In the arcane world of foreign affairs where acronyms rule, there are whispers that Dr. Hassan’s time may be up. All he’ll say on the matter is that though he’d like to retain the job, every position has to run its course.

Unlike those who believe ASEAN is nothing but an anti-communist mutual admiration club constructed by former president Soeharto 42 years ago and past its use-by date, Dr. Hassan believes the grouping has relevance.

“No other forum exists that is able to do good and maintain the habits of dialogue,” he said. “It has more than symbolic importance. Many issues, such as territorial disputes in the South China Sea, have been settled through ASEAN, which would otherwise have had to be handled on a bilateral basis.

“ASEAN helps exercise self-restraint, and good order. Others want to join. We are working to bring democracy to Myanmar.”

Does this mean Indonesia now has a role pushing democracy onto its reluctant neighbors, a Southeast Asian version of the US?

“No, we take the subtle approach,” he said. “Rather than impose our model of democracy, let’s sit down together. We are quite humble.

We must do more to embed the roots of democracy in our own country and educate the populace about the benefits.

“For example, in the last election we had 38 parties because the threshold is 2.5 percent support with many parties frantically searching for candidates. In Germany the threshold is 5 percent.” He is quick to add that doesn’t mean Indonesian democracy is immature.

“There is no conflict or contradiction between democracy and Islam. It is the duty of Muslims to take part in the political process,” he said.

“We don’t see democracy in quite the literal way [supremacy of the people] that it’s seen in the West, but more through the traditional concepts of musyawarah and mufakat [consultation and consensus].”

Dr Hassan started his professional life as a lawyer. He was born in Tangerang (best known for housing Jakarta’s international airport) and completed his tertiary education in the US where he earned a doctorate in international law.

He also went to Oxford University to study diplomacy, a skill he exercises with aplomb, forever wary of being misinterpreted. Like many diplomats, he can use many words to say little, useful in a profession where calling a spade by its proper name may result in it digging your own grave.

“Well, you said that, I didn’t,” was his standard reply when invited to endorse contentious statements.

When asked if Indonesia was the only true democracy among ASEAN’s 10 members he replied, “I don’t say so.” On only one occasion during a one-on-one interview in Wellington, New Zealand, did he offer an unequivocal and immediate “No!”

This was to the suggestion that the issue of Papuan separatism was Indonesia’s “pebble in our shoe” as the late Dr. Ali Alatas, Indonesia’s foreign minister under Soeharto, once described East Timor.

Earlier this year, Dr Hassan caused surprise by criticizing Myanmar’s treatment of its Islamic Rohingya minority when refugees alleging persecution started arriving on the Sumatra coast. This broke the ASEAN tradition of not interfering in other nation’s internal affairs. So in the same spirit, why not open Papua’s borders to foreign journalists?

“We’ve got nothing to hide but the people of Papua must be allowed to determine their own future without foreign visitors.” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with demonstrations but the people need time to do things without disruption.”

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