Alumnus Profile: Leslie Rowe
 Image taken following Mr Rowe’s presentation of credentials to Russian President Mr Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin in June 2002. From left to right the Russian Foreign Minister Mr Igor Ivanov, Mr Rowe, President Vladimir Putin and the President’s Foreign Policy adviser. |
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THREE days before Leslie Rowe was due to become Australia’s Deputy Head of Mission in Indonesia, all hell broke loose in Jakarta.
The country’s economy had suffered badly as the Asian financial crisis took hold, sparking major hardship and unrest among Indonesians. After the government removed subsidies on a range of staple commodities, to meet IMF targets, angry rioters rampaged through parts of the city demanding the resignation of President Soeharto, who had come under scrutiny from international lending organisations for economic mismanagement and misappropriation of state funds and resources. On 14 and 15 May 1998, rioters torched the old commercial centre of the city, targeting particularly the homes and businesses of Chinese Indonesians.
Mr Rowe (BA (Hons) 1967 DipEd 1968) arrived in Jakarta on Sunday, 17June on a near-empty 747 jet, to find the airport packed with people trying to flee. From there, he was plunged into one of the most fascinating and challenging times of his life.
As Deputy Ambassador, Mr Rowe quickly slotted into the hectic operations of the Australian Embassy, working with the Ambassador andembassy staff to report back to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian government on developments.
“At that stage, we were not sure what was going to happen – whether Soeharto would stay or go, whether there would be civil war or if the military would take to the streets nor how this would all impact on Australian citizens in Indonesia and on our relationship with the country,” Mr Rowe recalls.
“Given the interest in the situation back home we knew that everything we sent back to Canberra would be read or taken note of at the highest level of government.”
On 21 May 1998, President Soeharto resigned. Mr Rowe spent another three years in Indonesia, watching closely as the country rebuilt itself, democracy took hold and the foundations were laid for the development of a new post-Soeharto relationship with Australia.
“Being part of the Embassy staff in Indonesia for that three year period – with the fall of Soeharto, the initial transition to President Habibie, the independence plebiscite in East Timor with the difficulties in the bilateral relationship that brought including violence against the embassy was probably one of the most stimulating periods of my career.”
Initially attracted to a career in foreign affairs “for all the wrong reasons”, Mr Rowe received a piece of valuable advice in high school that set him on the right path to achieving his goal.
“I was told I should just do a degree in anything I was interested in – but do it at an honours level,” he says. “That’s the same advice I’d give to anyone else considering a career in the Department. There’s a small intake and you have to keep your options open.”
After graduating from the University of Melbourne with an Honours degree in Arts (with a History major) and a Diploma of Education, Mr Rowe taught for a year and then undertook two years of national service, before successfully applying for a job at the Department of External Affairs. It was the beginning of a diplomatic career than spanned 34 years and nine countries. Mr Rowe served in Ghana, Portugal, New York, Indonesia, Noumea, Canberra and even strife-ridden Beirut, where he would work with the sounds of machine gun fire exploding in the distance.
“I remember once an anti-aircraft shell flew in through the window, whizzed around the office and hit a wall,” he recalls.
In 2002, Mr Rowe reached the pinnacle of his career as Australia’s Ambassador to Russia.
It was just over decade after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as the country was moving on from Communism under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. Oil prices had rocketed, and the Russian economy was booming. One of Mr Rowe’s main priorities was to promote Australian trade and economic interests to a business community which had little exposure to Russia.
“We put a lot of emphasis on encouraging businesses to investigate opportunities on Sakhalin Island off the eastern coast of Russia where there were very large scale gas and oil reserves and massive investment by western oil companies and which was on a similar time zone to Eastern Australia Some companies did very well there.
An important element of the work of the Australian foreign service is to protect the rights and ensure the safety of Australians travelling and living abroad. In a high profile case in Russia the Embassy assisted an Australian caught in the theatre siege in 2002 Sadly, more than 120 hostages were killed during the siege, but the Australian was fortunate to survive the experience. “When the siege was finally resolved, we had to find out if he was still alive, where he’d been sent and had to make sure his welfare was ensured,” Mr Rowe says. In 2002 Mr Rowe had led DFAT’s consular response to the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Centre which was a major undertaking to identify those who had been killed in the attacks and to identify and locate those who had survied and to keep the familiesand the government fully informed of developments.
In 2005, Mr Rowe stepped down from the role of Ambassador to Russia and retired from the foreign service to settle in Melbourne.
Though many dream of a diplomatic career for the chance to travel and live abroad, Mr Rowe reflects on his experiences in Canberra as some of the most engrossing in his career.
There he worked on a wide variety of issues including on Papua New Guinea, Africa, nuclear disarmament and public affairs, and worked on the staff of three Foreign Ministers – Senator Willesee, Mr Andrew Peacock and Mr Bill Hayden.
“Working there, you are at the centre of it all … and it makes you so much more aware when you’re a diplomat serving abroad of who you are serving and why you are doing what you’re doing; as a ministerial staffer you also get a very clear view of the interplay between parliament and the bureaucracy,” Mr Rowe says.
“No matter where you are posted, Canberra is the centre of the world, because it’s to Canberra that you report and the Australian Government that you serve.”
By Fiona Willan
