Language of diplomacy eludes our PM

ONE of candidate Kevin Rudd's big selling points - other than that he was not John Howard - was his experience as a diplomat.

We now know that he was at best a low-level paper shuffler, reaching third secretary status, which is just a rung up from the embassy chauffeur. Further, it is now blindingly apparent that he is not in the least diplomatic. On Friday, he presented an ultimatum to a Singapore summit of Asian leaders as he pushed his plan for a regional community organisation, a local version of the European Union. "The choice is whether we seek actively to shape the future of our wider region _ the Asia Pacific region _ by building the regional architecture we need for the future, if we are together to shape a common regional future,'' Rudd said. ``Or whether we will adopt a passive approach _ where we simply wait and see what evolves, whether that enhances stability or whether it undermines it.'' Sound familiar? My way, or you are all stupid. The Asian response has been tepid. Diplomacy was never Rudd's strong point. The zenith in his work experience before reaching the Lodge was his stint as chief of staff and head of Cabinet under former Queensland Premier Wayne Goss. It is now obvious to all, including those in the media commentariat who touted Rudd as a foreign affairs savant before the 2007 election, that this is yet another area in which he is an abject failure. Rudd showed all the diplomatic skills of a Queensland public servant when he leaked the details of a private telephone conversation he had with former US President George Bush to The Australian newspaper last October. During the call, Mr Bush reportedly responded to Rudd's suggestion of a G20 summit to deal with the crisis by saying: ``What's the G20?'' The leaked conversation shocked the diplomatic corps for two reasons: It was an incredible breach of trust to leak an account of a private leader-to-leader conversation; and the adolescent derogatory spin given to the conversation falsely implied that Bush, who had prior involvement with the G20, didn't know what it was. US officials denied Bush had made any such remark and senior diplomatic sources said at the time the US would be extra cautious in their future dealings with Rudd. In meetings with President Obama, Rudd has behaved like a star struck schoolgirl, but that hasn't cut much ice with the US which is yet to appoint an ambassador to replace the last Bush administration, Robert McCallum, who left in January. Obama cannot find anyone to live in Rudd's Canberra though he has appointed more than a dozen ambassadors to other nations. Before the 2007 election, much, too, was made of the Mandarin-speaking candidate's linguistic skills, but even the Chinese are now perplexed at Rudd's inability to deal with the Chinese leadership. According to Zhu Feng, one of China's most influential experts on security, Beijing was more comfortable with Howard. ``When Mr Rudd was elected, there was an expectation that a more intimate relationship between the countries would result, because he knows China so well and speaks Chinese,'' Zhu, the deputy director of the School of International Studies at Beijing University said. ``But it has remained just at the commercial level. Bilateral relations as a whole are still far from intimate; they are undeveloped. We haven't even agreed a strategic partnership, in the way we have with 24 other countries.'' Under Rudd, the Australia-Chinese relationship has hit a few potholes, including the $26 billion Chinalco bid for 18 per cent of Rio Tinto; the defence white paper's focus on China's military rise; the secret visit of China's propaganda chief Li Changchun to Canberra and Chinese-Australian businesswoman Helen Liu's sponsorship of Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon. No wonder China's is confused. Are we courting Chinese trade or building an arsenal to deal with China as our greatest military threat, and if the latter is so, why is the defence minister living in a house owned by his Chinese sponsor? Labor also used to make much of the slavish relationship Paul Keating developed toward Indonesia's President Suharto, insisting that Howard would never be able to match that love affair. Given the shady reputation Suharto enjoyed, Howard was probably right in keeping his relationship with Indonesia on a strictly professional level, but that did not stop it developing beyond anything enjoyed by the Keating government. After the liberation of East Timor and the Bali bombings, the bonds between the two nations strengthened to levels they are unlikely to reach again. That relationship has now slipped to the point that five Australians are languishing in semi-detention in West Irian because no-one has the necessary connections to bring them home. Boat people are again transiting through Indonesia. Now it is revealed that Rudd, for personal reasons, blocked the promotion of one of his more gifted former diplomatic colleagues, Hugh Borrowman, to the Berlin embassy, consigning him instead to the lowly office in Sweden. Rudd's reputation within the Australian diplomatic service is such that he can't find an Australian diplomat to work in his office, even as he stalks Asia and wastes millions trying to buy African votes for his own tilt at the seat currently occupied by Burkina Faso on the UN Security Council. With such ineptitude, Rudd shows himself to be admirably equipped for the top UN job, which he is said to covet. Given the general dysfunctional nature of the UN, and its myriad global failures, let no-one stand in his way.