President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono delivering a speech to
diplomats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jakarta on Thursday.
He said he wanted more personal communication with them.
(Antara Photo/Widodo S. Jusuf)

24/02/2012 (Jakarta Globe) - Starting this year, Indonesian ambassadors and diplomats the world over will have to prepare an annual report for the president, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Thursday.

“I want a performance report [from all Indonesian embassies] delivered to me. Five pages is enough,” the president said during an address to 128 Indonesian ambassadors and representatives for international organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The president said that before his term was over in 2014 he wanted to make a series of visits to Indonesian embassies so he could personally find out about each embassy’s performance directly from its ambassador.

“I want a 10-minute explanation about whether our diplomatic missions had performed well. We will make sure the tasks are done well,” he said.

Yudhoyono said he wanted the Foreign Ministry to formulate a white paper on Indonesia’s foreign policy. The paper would contain the ministry’s goals, strategy and policy and be regularly updated each year.

“There are many [diplomats] attending international forums. We don’t want [the diplomats’] view to be against the outline set by the Foreign Ministry or that of the president,” he said.

One of the most pressing issues for ambassadors to address, Yudhoyono said, was the increase in calls from international groups to boycott Indonesia’s palm oil.

Conservation groups like the World Wildlife Fund have been pushing companies in Europe, Australia and Japan to buy more sustainable palm oil.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was launched in 2004 and has persuaded companies like Nestle, Unilever, IKEA, Cadbury and Carrefour to commit to purchasing only certified palm oil.

Indonesia’s Palm Oil Association (Gapki) withdrew from RSPO in October, saying it would focus on helping to develop the government-backed sustainability scheme.

“It is unfair if Indonesia is not allowed to sell its palm oil,” Yudhoyono groused, adding that the boycott on palm oil not certified by RSPO was an example of unfair trading practices.

“I want you to be vigilant so we have more power in the countries you are serving,” he told the ambassadors and diplomats.

The RSPO last year certified 3 million tons of Indonesian crude palm oil as sustainable. Last year, Indonesia produced 25 million tons of CPO, making it the largest producing country in the world.

Yudhoyono said Indonesian diplomats should have five characteristics: “Be confident, have a global view, know your missions, be achievement-oriented, and always be ready, active, and creative,” he said.

“We must have the mentality of diplomats from an emerging nation, Southeast Asia’s biggest country, a member of the G-20,” he added.