Protecting Indonesian Citizens in Diplomacy, and My Story
Starting my career at the Directorate for the Protection of Indonesian Citizens (PWNI) allowed me to get hands-on experience in the Indonesian government’s enormous effort to protect its citizens overseas.
“Yan”
A WhatsApp notification popped up on my screen phone when I was walking to the bus stop. This is a typical message from my father, who usually gives a signal to ask me if I could talk with him over the phone.
I called him immediately.
Luckily, there was no urgent or bad news. It was just an old father who wanted to catch up with his son and discuss random topics. But this time, I wasn’t silent for most of our conversation like I used to do.
Especially, after he asked me a one-million-dollar question:
“Bang, what would you say if there’s someone out there says that the Indonesian government is not doing enough to protect its citizens abroad?” my dad asked me.
In the beginning of my career, I was assigned at PWNI from 2018–2022. This is the only directorate at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry whose mandate is to protect Indonesian citizens overseas.
While my colleague from another directorate was busy drafting a policy brief or preparing materials for some international conference, I got overwhelmed by the constant text messages from people with daily problems.
Daily personal problems, but they occur overseas like:
Losing a family member;
Caught up by police for doing a criminal act;
Got sick but cannot pay the hospital bills; etc.
On some occasions, I had to get up at 1 am. Driving a car to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. By 2 am, I handed over a deceased person from abroad to the family on the spot.
As the representative from PWNI, I had to deliver the necessary information that I got from our Embassy regarding the deceased case. For instance, our Embassy was still monitoring the process of claiming insurance in the accredited country.
“Thank you, Pak, for handling my son’s case. May you and the Indonesian government be blessed”, said one of the deceased family members whose words have swept away my fatigue and sleep deprivation.
Other times, I accompanied the victim of human trafficking to her hometown, which was located in a remote area and surrounded by a forest.
‘Are all these Indonesian diplomat jobs?’ you might wonder.
Yes these are.
But these are just some routine tasks that I was involved in. Other of my colleagues at PWNI also took part in the evacuation mission in Nepal, Yemen, Wuhan, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. You can imagine how brave they were to embrace the courage to risk their lives on this dangerous mission.
Back to my father’s initial question.
I told my father that:
the Indonesian government is not only doing enough but also constantly trying to go the extra mile when it comes to protecting its citizens.
I gave him two reasons to support my argument:
First, protecting Indonesian citizens abroad has become one of Indonesia’s Foreign Policy priorities in the past nine years. This indicates, undoubtedly, that our government has always put forward the protection issue.
Second, protection efforts are still ongoing regardless of the world situation. When most of us were forced to stay inside home during the Covid-19 pandemic, PWNI diplomats had to go outside. Passing through the outbreak, to save the lives of stranded citizens or seafarers.
My colleague and I were at Bitung port with the PWNI Director in November 2020 to ensure the success of 157 Indonesian stranded seafarers repatriation who could not sign off, for months, at any port due to the Covid-19 pandemic restriction policy.
This never-ending effort proves that protecting Indonesian citizens is not only jargon to make Indonesian diplomacy seem more down-to-earth for international or domestic constituents.
Last but certainly not least, I asked my father a question:
“You’ve seen how I worked at PWNI, right, pa?”
He was silent for a while.
I believe his silence because of my question forced his mind to remember what he saw with his own eyes on how an Indonesian diplomat sacrificed his time, sleep, and energy to do his job, day in and day out, so each reported case of Indonesian citizens abroad could be solved.
