A detention drama in Jakarta

Published : Jan 17, 2003 00:00 IST

Arun Jain and Rajiv Malhotra in Chennai. - BIJOY GHOSH

Arun Jain and Rajiv Malhotra in Chennai. - BIJOY GHOSH

THE image of the world as a global village looked truly unreal when the Indian foreign policy establishment found the going tough before finally managing to secure the release of two Chennai-based corporate executives from police custody in Jakarta in December. Outwardly, there is hardly any sign of hostile relationship between India and the Indonesian polity at this point. However, the sordid drama of the detention of Arun Jain and Rajiv Malhotra of Polaris Software Lab. has exposed not only the fragility of bilateral relations but also the hazards of international commerce in an atmosphere of `globalisation' that does not guarantee a uniform system of fair business practices and remedies for perceived grievances across international frontiers. As a result, the ordeal of the two Indian businessmen highlights the need for the show of greater transparency and fair play by countries such as Indonesia that possess other right credentials for being key actors in the world's marketplace.

Briefly stated, Jain and Malhotra were arrested in Jakarta where they had gone to discuss with a local bank some matters pertaining to a commercial dispute. In a larger international perspective, the proverbial devil is not to be found in the details of the dispute between Artha Graha Bank and Polaris. Whatever be the details of the dispute, the gravity of which was apparently conceded by the Indian side as reflected by the decision of the two executives to travel to Jakarta in the first place, the treatment they received there underlines the need for a code of conduct if international commerce is not to become a farce in the age of "globalisation''.

The first principle of any such code will be that transnational commercial disputes should be treated as such and not as the means to settle or score any political or diplomatic point in inter-state relations.

In the Polaris-Artha Graha case, arbitration in Singapore has been provided for under the relevant contract, according to diplomats and analysts familiar with it. Nonetheless, Jain and Malhotra were not only arrested and detained for over 10 days but deprived of their passports at the time of their release. The impounded passports were returned only several days later.

P.S. Suryanarayana
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