Indonesian envoys go on sick leave ... to avoid speaking in English!!!

SOME Indonesian envoys based in embassies abroad are so weak in English language skills that they take sick leave to avoid meeting foreign officials, a senior Foreign Ministry official said.

Mr Imron Cotan, Indonesia's No. 2 Foreign Ministry bureaucrat, told a parliamentary committee that the problem lies not with his own diplomats but with attaches sent to embassies by other ministries including defence, trade and finance.

'I found that a number of our attaches are not fluent in English,' The Jakarta Post newspaper on Thursday reported Mr Cotan telling a parliamentary committee investigating the performance of Indonesian diplomats. More...

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