The most glaring achievement is certainly the election of Ban Ki-moon as the United Nations secretary-general twice, allowing him to serve from 2007 to 2017. South Korea’s finesse has also earned the country the world’s trust to host prestigious sports events, such as the World Cup together with Japan in 2002, the Summer Olympics in 2008 and the Winter Olympics in 2018.

For a senior diplomat Ban, North Korea should have been a major obstacle. But he later convinced the world that he could act as a UN official, rather than a South Korean citizen, in dealing with Pyongyang.

My diplomat friend also talked about the nomination of former South Korean foreign minister Kang Kung-hwa as the new director-general of the International Labor Organization (ILO). The election will be held on March 25 of this year, which may see Kang compete with Gilbert Houngbo of Togo, Mthunzi Mdwaba of South Africa, Greg Vines of Australia, and Muriel Penicaud of France.

South Korean President Moon Jae-In is acting as the chief promoter of his former chief diplomat. In his campaign, Moon did not hesitate to call for support from heads of foreign governments like he recently did during his Middle East tour. He persuaded Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad Salman to support Kang.

The Moon government also has formed a task force under the Ministry of Employment and Labor to support Kang’s candidacy. President Moon is the first South Korean first president to attend an ILO conference since 1991 when the country joined ILO.  His mission is very clear.

As reported by The Korea Herald, in a clear bid to please international labor unions, President Moon also asked for the ratification of conventions on freedom of association, the right to organize and collective bargaining, and the prohibition of forced labor, despite strong protests from major business lobby groups.

In 2020, as reported by South Korean media, President Moon telephoned several foreign leaders to ask their governments to vote for Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee in the election for the World Trade Organization (WTO) executive director. Eventually, Yoo lost the race after the WTO members preferred Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a senior official of the World Bank.

“South Korea has a comprehensive pool of talents who are ready anytime to hold global organization positions. We should learn from them. They effectively fight to win the race. We are still far from their preparedness,” said the diplomat.

The senior diplomat however just smiled when I told him about the failure of Indonesian senior diplomat Yuri Thamrin to become the executive secretary of the Yokohama-based International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO)) in December last year, despite the fact that Indonesia is the world’s third-largest producer of tropical timber. The winner came from Malaysia, a much smaller timber exporter than Indonesia.

I have an impression that Yuri fought alone, although the government reiterated strong support. But at least in terms of a media campaign, little information could be obtained about Yuri.

“Pak Yuri is very capable and has an impressive track record, and the government also fully supported him. But we have to acknowledge that we should step up our concerted efforts if we want to win positions at global organizations,” the diplomat said.

Kang is a veteran in multilateral diplomacy. She worked as a senior policy advisor for UN secretary-general Ban and his successor Antonio Guterres. In 2006, she was appointed the deputy high commissioner at the UN Human Rights office.

“Kang has vast experience and deep knowledge of multilateral affairs, although she never directly deals with labor issues in her portfolio. And the Korean government has seriously promoted her long before the election was held,” said the Indonesian diplomat.

According to The Korea Times, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), one of the two largest labor unions in the country, however, opposed Kang’s nomination, citing her lack of experience in labor issues

 

The Indonesian story

Indonesia is the world’s largest rainforest after Amazon and Africa’s Congo Basin. But this fact did not help Yuri, as Indonesia withdrew his nomination at the last minute because Sheam Satkuru of Malaysia had secured majority votes from timber producers and consumers.

Yuri has served as ambassador to the United Kingdom, Belgium and the European Union. His nomination was backed by Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi, Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, and Forestry and Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya.

Indonesia gave up and was promised to get the director of operation position. However, as of Tuesday, the post remains vacant, according to the ITTO official website. It remains uncertain whether the consolation post will eventually go to Yuri.

“Indonesia needs to boost its presence and activism at the ITTO. So far our activism is inadequate. We are only represented by three managerial level-Indonesians. We must be more commanding in this organization,” Yuri wrote on kumpuran.com.

The 40-year-old ITTO has never hired an Indonesian national as the highest officer. Japan defeated Indonesia as the host of ITTO in 1986.

Another senior government official, Indroyono Soesilo, tried his luck to become the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) director-general in 2011, along with five other contenders. Jose Graziano da Silva of Brazil won the race, and Indroyono was awarded the post of director of fishery and agriculture. In 2014, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo appointed Indroyono the coordinating maritime minister, but a year later, Indroyono had to lose the Cabinet post.

The most shocking defeat Indonesia has conceded in the race for an international organization post came in 1987, when the country’s most respected intellectual Soedjatmoko did not win the support from Japan in the final vote to elect the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) secretary-general. Soedjatmoko was the Tokyo-based UN University at that time.

However, Indonesia also has at least two success stories to share. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani once served as the managing director of the World Bank from June 2010 to July 2016. She resigned as the finance minister of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after the Century Bank saga, only to win the second-highest post in the World Bank.

President Jokowi appointed her the finance minister in July 2016 and has maintained her until now.

Former trade and tourism minister Mari Pangestu followed in Sri Mulyani’s footsteps after she was appointed the World Bank managing director for development policy and partnership in March 2020.

The two great women however won the prominent posts more because of their track records and support from the United States as the majority shareholder of the bank.

Indonesia needs to learn from other countries, including South Korea, if it wants to secure more key posts in global organizations.

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The writer is a senior editor at The Jakarta Post.