Arifin Siregar

Arifin Siregar trained as an economist in Rotterdam and Münster, completing his doctorate in Germany in 1960. He worked at the United Nations in New York and Beirut and then at the International Monetary Fund, including a posting as its representative in Laos. He joined Bank Indonesia in 1971 and became governor in 1983. His governorship belonged to a period in which Indonesia’s economic ministers relaxed financial controls and pursued banking, tax, and trade reforms. ¹

Siregar moved to the Trade Ministry in 1988. In 1992 President Suharto sent him to help repair relations with the Netherlands after a dispute over Dutch development assistance. According to an Indonesian embassy account of that mission, his work included arranging business visits and developing an Indonesian trade and distribution center in Rotterdam. He later received the Indonesia Nederland Society’s Linggarjati Award for his contribution to relations between the two countries. ²

As ambassador to the United States in 1993–1997, Siregar faced sustained criticism of Indonesia’s conduct in East Timor. At a December 1996 National Press Club meeting, he urged Americans to recognize change in Indonesia’s record and defended the US-Indonesia Society as an organization for improving relations. Journalist Eyal Press, reporting for The Progressive, criticized the presentation as minimizing human rights abuses. Siregar also cultivated the historical relationship: in December 1995 he presented Indonesian honors to representatives of American diplomats Philip Jessup and Charlton Ogburn for their work during the independence struggle. ^{3, 4, 6}

Siregar remained active in bilateral affairs after his ambassadorship and became an Indonesian cochair of the US-Indonesia Society. He died in Jakarta on 23 September 2019, aged 85. ^{5, 6}