H.C. Coombs Lecture - 1992

His Excellency Sabam Siagan delivered the 1992 H.C. Coombs lecture with an address titled “Towards a new Asia Pacific – Indonesian - Australia relations in a changing geopolitical environment”. He discusses the current relations between Australia and Indonesia and the wider Asia Pacific, delves into the history of the region and looks at ways the relationships between Indonesia and Australia can be improved – “Closer ties between our two countries depend on the ingenuity, imagination, and indeed and open worship of our peoples.”

About His Excellency Sabam Siagan

Sabam Siagan was born in Jakarta on May 1932.

He studied at the School of Law and Social Sciences at the University of Indonesia. While he was there, he was general vice secretary for the Indonesian Christian University Students Association and secretary of the Indonesian University Students Association.

He studied in the Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, in the United States, and was awarded a Nieman Fellowship for editors with Harvard University in 1978 and 79.

He served as a research specialist on international security affairs as a member of the Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the United Nations from 1967 until 73 and again from 1978 until 1983.

He was the Deputy Chief Editor and senior editorial writer for the Senate Harapan Daily in Jakarta. From 83 to 91, he was editor in chief of the Jakarta Post. He became the Indonesian Ambassador to Australia on the 17th of July 1991 and served until 1995.

After leaving Canberra in 1995, Sabam joined the board of Jakarta Post and continued to write columns about Indonesia and its foreign policy up until the last months of his life.

He passed away on the 3rd of June 2016.

Siagan, S. (1992, September 29). Towards a new Asia Pacific: Indonesian - Australian relations in a changing geopolitical environment [Conference Presentation]. Herbert Cole Coombs Annual Lecture, Fremantle, WA, Australia.