Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Indonesia's potential ambassadors perceive the job as a chance for a vacation and have little idea of how to promote the country overseas, a parliamentary commission claims.

The candidates lacked general knowledge about the countries they wanted to be posted to and could well tarnish Indonesia's international image, said Foreign Affairs and Defence Commission members who are currently assessing the candidates.

"Most of the candidates' papers are just like travel guides," said Mr Djoko Susilo, a member of the commission, referring to a mandatory 20-page proposal which candidates were required to present to the commission.

The candidates' lack of detailed plans for developing diplomatic and trade relations between Indonesia and the foreign country suggested they saw the job as a type of holiday, he said.

In one case, a candidate applying to go to Sri Lanka "forgot" to mention in his proposal the violent conflict there and how that would affect political and economic stability, complained one commission member.

Nominees from the Department of Foreign Affairs suffered from a bureaucratic style of thinking left behind from the Suharto era and appeared unprepared to work in a democratic country, said Mr Djoko.

"Seventy per cent of the candidates failed to give a clear picture of how they will cooperate with the local media. They had no idea how to introduce Indonesia to the host country, because during the New Order they never thought the media was important because it could be controlled," he said, referring to the Suharto era by its well-known name.

Commission member Ibrahim Ambong pointed out that an envoy's public relations efforts were more important than ever as Indonesia's image had been badly tarnished by reports of the numerous conflicts across the archipelago and by the financial crisis. The poor calibre of the candidates has been blamed on the Department of Foreign Affairs' long-standing practice of promoting "loyal" rather than capable foreign envoys.

However, department spokesman Marty Nata Legawa said the department only nominated individuals who were considered competent and had sufficient expertise in the country for which they were chosen.

Diplomatic envoys are selected from the Foreign Affairs Department and from individuals recommended by the president. The parliamentary commission is currently screening 27 diplomatic candidates.

But Parliament's criticisms of career diplomats might be motivated by politicking rather than real concern for Indonesia's foreign policy, warned a former ambassador to Australia who is now an editor with The Jakarta Post.

"I just hope the commission's hearings are done in a spirit of objectivity aimed at improving the performance of candidates and not to opening certain positions to non-career diplomats so their friends can be there," said Mr Sabam Siagian.