Lady Ambassador
HE Prianti Gagarin Djatmiko-Singgih has been appointed as Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Tyara P. Hansel spoke with the polyglot lady before her departure to Venezuela
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graduate of University of Indonesia, with a major in Chinese literature, HE Prianti shares how she started her diplomatic career. “I’ve never dreamed of being a diplomat. My passion has always been teaching, and I’ve always wanted to be a teacher,” says Rini, as many refer to the lady ambassador.
But sometimes even the best-laid plans go astray, as HE Prianti’s path to becoming a teacher did not go as exactly planned. It was in 1985 when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced an open recruitment for diplomatic staff positions. “There were 35 spots offered, and they were targeting third-year university students who had a minimum grade point average of 3.0,” she explains. The Ambassador recalls that the head of Chinese language department signed her up for the recruitment, despite her being only a sophomore in the university. “I was chosen because I was the one and only student in the department who had the 3.0 GPA. The next thing I knew was that I was enrolled in the programme and received a scholarship from Academia Diplomatica in Chile,” she says. For HE Prianti, the enrolment was a blessing in disguise because being a diplomat entails living in different parts of the world. In the past 25 years of her diplomatic career, the Ambassador had lived and worked all over, from Geneva to New York. From 2006 to 2009, HE Prianti lived in Brussels where she served as Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission, and Head of Chancellery of Indonesia to EU, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Having been stationed abroad for many years, the Ambassador says she has no problem adapting to different cultures and climates. “I think my ability to adapt has improved over time,
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and thank God, Dhanang is very well adaptable, as well,” she says, referring to her 15-year-old son, Dhanang Sengkelit. Dhanang spent his early years in New York and Brussels, yet his mother doesn’t want him to forget his roots and culture. “So I taught him Gamelan and signed him up for a traditional dance class. When we live abroad, he’s required to speak in Bahasa Indonesia at home,” explains HE Prianti, who also served as English, Spanish, and French interpreter during the Megawati Soekarnoputri administration (2001-2002). The Ambassador speaks Spanish well, and such level of fluency is a must-have skill if one wants to work as the country’s ambassador to Spanish-speaking Venezuela and the Caribbean states, including the Dominica, St Vincent and Grenadines, Granada, Trinidad and Tobago, and St Lucia. HE Prianti will be stationed in Caracas, Venezuela.
“It is a challenging task to set up a (foreign policy) strategy that would propel cooperation between the two countries” Asked her about what she thought of the relations between Indonesia and Venezuela, the Ambassador says, “It has so far been challenging—in terms of our economic and political relationships, for Indonesia and Venezuela have fundamental differences in ideologies. But this is what excites me. It is a challenging task to set up a (foreign policy) strategy that would propel cooperation between the two countries.” To accomplish her mission, the Ambassador will promote cultural agendas. “Politics is a sensitive issue. I think it’s better to take the cultural approach to improving the two countries’ relation,” concludes the Ambassador. HE Prianti is the spouse of Indonesian diplomat Herman Djatmiko.
march 2012
n photography agung wibowo
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march 2012