THE FOREIGN POLICY MAESTRO
For many, he was a person who was rich in diplomatic experience
TAN Sri Ahmad Kamil Jaafar left us last Saturday. When he was Wisma Putra’s secretary-general in the early 1990s, he took pride in being called “the tallest man in Kuala Lumpur”.
A six-footer, with white hair, always walking upright like a soldier, he was often mistaken for someone more than a civil servant. Whenever he entered a meeting room, officers who did not know him would stand up thinking he was some kind of dignitary or minister.
In the ministry, he was often feared by the young officers. He gave deadlines and tested their knowledge of their subject matter during what was known then as the “morning prayers”. These were morning sessions when officers were quizzed on their current reading, as well as current affairs under their purview.
Most of his officers are now retired and in hindsight, he was a bully who would ask officers who under-performed to “jump into the lake”. In reality, for those who had a chance to know him better, he was an ordinary, generous and a decent man.
On weekends, he could be spotted at the Keramat wet market looking for fresh fish and herbs to do his own cooking. He would go to Bangsar to buy fish head curry and on one occasion, he tricked me into following him to a meeting, but we ended at the Lake Club eating banana leaf rice.
Kamil was also close with his political bosses. He was always briefing the prime minister and was never afraid to give his views, no matter how controversial.
An international relations scholar would envy a person like Kamil. He helmed the Foreign Ministry when the world was experiencing high and low politics. This was a man who presided over the heights of Realist and Liberalist thoughts, then provided real-life evidence to Critical Theory by using Green Theory and putting Malaysia on the map at the Earth Summit in Rio.
His was also a time when constructivism played a central role in Malaysia’s foreign policy, when Malaysia’s Muslim interest propelled it into an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and when aggrandised securitisation interests led Malaysia to speak against the “Antarctica Club”. Kamil played a successful hand in executing the balance between Malaysia’s policy of non-alignment and relations with the West.
Kamil assumed a crucial role in the progress of Asean solidarity. He was there at every summit and preparatory meetings. He was there when Malaysia sent its peacekeepers to Bosnia and Herzegovina. He reinforced Malaysia South-South Cooperation, bringing in thousands of students and trainees from Africa and other less developing countries to learn from Malaysia’s development experience.
I was fortunate to be part of Kamil’s three-person team to Sudan in 1996. Malaysia had economic interest in the South of Sudan which was in conflict with the North. It was in our mutual interest to find a peaceful solution to their problem. Before reaching Khartoum, we stopped at Pretoria to call on President Nelson Mandela.
Kamil informed Mandela that Malaysia was assuming a mediating role to find a peaceful solution between the parties in Sudan and the South. At that time, Kamil, acting as the prime minister’s Special Envoy to Sudan and South Africa, was aware of Mandela’s influencing role in Africa and did not want to offend him by assuming a conciliatory role on Sudan.
Kamil never went to Rio, Brazil, for the Earth Summit in 1992, but at home he was an excellent manager. He chaired the National Steering Committee that came out with Malaysia’s position on climate change, biodiversity, forests and a whole range of issues on the Environment Summit agenda.
He made environment consciousness a household name and with his team of experts and experienced negotiators, Malaysia was able to put its name on the map. This was constructivist thinking at its best.
At home, he appointed Datuk Renji Sathiah to helm the National Climate Change committee. At preparatory meetings in New York and Rome, the Group of 77 fell in line behind Datuk Ting Wen Lian, the vocal “Dragon Lady” who made front page news in the United States for her fiery statements defending the South.
The Commission on Sustainable Development unanimously elected Tan Sri Razali Ismail as its first chairman at the end of the Earth Summit.
Tan Sri Ahmad Kamil is no longer with us. But for many in the diplomatic circuit, he was a person who was rich in diplomatic experience.
Because of the varied subject matter that Wisma Putra covered, many officers who worked with him have different stories to tell about how this tallest man in Kuala Lumpur helped put into practice the foreign policy stances of his beloved country.