“Nambahin macet saja [just worsens the already congested traffic],” the abusive words have often and will continue to be heard before and during the May 7-8 ASEAN summit.

Such a complaint, however, is not only about the more severe traffic jams during the regional grouping leaders’ meeting, but more importantly about the indifferent feeling of Jakartans on the summit as they do not see yet the benefit or relevance of the event.

As a good host, however, we Jakartans have the moral responsibility to create a comfortable and friendly atmosphere during the stay of our guests, be they diplomats, government officials, politicians, social workers and journalists. It is true that many of us do not see the urgency of such a costly event in the short term, but foreign affairs and policies are unseparated from other pillars of the state’s life.

It is understandable when many stakeholders of this state complain that the government should give priority to much more pressing domestic issues such as huge unemployment and unsatisfactory economic growth. But we should not forget that our economy also heavily depends on the outside world.

In the meantime, it is not impossible that some guests may take extra security arrangements to ensure the safety of their delegations, especially their leaders. We need to understand their feeling no matter how ridiculous it may be for Indonesia.

We should realize that Jakarta has several times been the target of terror attacks over the past decade. But we also call for an understanding of our guests that the government, including the security forces and the whole of society, do their best for the comfort and safety of our honorable guests.

Since its establishment in 1967 in Bangkok and even since its transformation into an official organization after the signing of the ASEAN Charter in 2007 in Singapore, many Indonesians and citizens of other member countries have perceived that ASEAN is their government’s business and has almost nothing to do with them.

All leaders of the 10-member ASEAN — except Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who has to focus on the general election on Saturday — will regroup on Saturday and Sunday. At the end of their discussion they are expected to issue their accountability report to the public on the direction of the regional bloc for another year ahead.

Many Jakartans perhaps do not realize that their city slowly but consistenly has transformed itself as the capital city of ASEAN such as Brussels for the EU. More countries such as the US and Japan have stationed their ambassadors to ASEAN here. In the past many envoys to Indonesia also served as representatives of their governments to ASEAN. Being a diplomatic capital city of ASEAN does not only mean political prestige but also major economic benefits.

We do hope that ASEAN leaders can achieve concrete results during their meeting to prove to their citizens that their conclusions of their meeting are not just strong on paper.

Be a good host. The positive attitude is expected from all citizens of this city. And we believe our guests will also appreciate our warm hospitality.

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