Ali Alatas

Posted on March 12, 2005

Ali Alatas (4 November 1932 – 11 December 2008 was an Indonesian diplomat of Hadhrami descent, who served as the country’s foreign minister from 1988 to 1999.

A trained lawyer who also had a brief stint as a journalist, Alatas joined the Indonesian foreign service in 1954 as a 22-year-old. Throughout his career, he continued to push for regional cooperation and, as a member of the ASEAN’s Eminent Persons Group, helped broker peace in several hot spots in the Southeast Asia region. Alatas also played a key role in ASEAN’s development, and even after he had retired he played a critical role in the drafting of the ASEAN Charter.

In 2003, Alatas was appointed as the United Nations special envoy. He arrived in Burma on 18 August 2005 for a three-day visit to negotiate the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. He was the first special envoy allowed into the country in more than a year.

Until his death, Alatas was chairman of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Presidential Advisory Council (Dewan Pertimbangan Presiden/Wantimpres)[1].

In the 12 years as Foreign Minister, Alatas was not only Indonesia’s principal spokesman in the international arena, he was also the initiator and formulator of his country’s foreign policy. He contributed actively to the formation of organizations as the Non-Aligned Movement, the Group of 77, ASEAN and APEC. As chairman of the Jakarta Informal Meetings and as co-chairman of the International Conference on Cambodia in Paris, he played a key role in the settlement of the Cambodian conflict in the early 1990s. He was also instrumental in the negotiations between the Philippines Government and the Moro National Liberation Front, which led to a peace agreement in 1996 that ended more than two decades of rebellion in southern Philippines.

Despite his retirement, Alatas refuses to stay put. As Foreign Affairs Special Advisor to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, he occasionally serves as special envoy to a number of conflict areas. Most recently, he was selected to be among 10 members of ASEAN’s Eminent Persons Group, which is tasked with formulating a charter for the Southeast Asian organization.[2]

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Notes:
[1] Wikipedia.org
[2] the-leaders.org

Filed Under Blogger Indonesia Tags: alex, ali alatas, menlu, menteri luar negeri