Politics

道歉并不容易

Jan 28, 2014 Gareth Evans

堪培拉——道歉、或者拒绝道歉再次成为新闻，让人们再次怀疑道歉在解决国际争端中所起的作用。及时并真诚的致歉在缓和个人紧张关系中所起的作用是毋庸置疑的。但道歉是否适用于外交领域？

近期的某些事件中，道歉问题不过是恼人的插曲，比方说阿富汗总统卡尔扎伊要求美国为去年底意外造成平民伤亡道歉——之后才能，这一点非常奇怪，允许美国继续为阿富汗和他本人提供保护（不难理解，美国拒绝了他的要求）。

但有些情况下付出的代价也非常惨重。去年11月来印尼和澳大利亚的双边关系就已经跌落至数十年来的低点，苏西洛·班邦·尤多约诺总统因澳大利亚拒绝就窃听他（和他妻子）的私人电话道歉而倍感愤怒。

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 4 Comments on this article

Cam Jennings Feb 1, 2014

Great piece Gareth and thank you for this work.
My response in length can be found here - http://pegasus11.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/so-sincerely-sorry/
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Michael Heller Jan 31, 2014

Ryohei Uchida (below),
You may be interested to know that someone has quite recently written a book on this very topic -- Jennifer Lind ‘Sorry States: Apologies in International Politics’ (Cornell). When I read what you wrote I was reminded of something Lind said elsewhere in an essay.

“Comparison of the Japanese and German cases thus raises a puzzle. Japan’s modest efforts to offer contrition repeatedly triggered sharp outcry among conservatives, who justified and even denied past atrocities. Because of backlash, Japanese contrition ended up alarming Japan’s neighbors. In Germany, by contrast, far more ambitious efforts at contrition did not provoke a similar backlash. Though some West German conservatives preferred to emphasize a more positive national history, they did not deny or glorify Nazi crimes. The French thus viewed West German debates about the past as healthy, cathartic experiences for the country’s democratic development—and as a reassuring signal about its intentions.”

As I think Gareth Evans implied, one problem with Japan as compared with Germany would appear to be that no matter what its diplomats say (under pressure), the world outside sees and hears a sizeable influential unrepentant section of the population -- nationalists and militarists. That’s why it is particularly disturbing that Shinzo Abe visited the war shrine when tensions were at their highest. Personally I would suggest to you that Japan might sensibly be generous and ‘disown’ one or two of those pesky little islands. Give them to charity ? It would look so good to the world.
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Michael Heller Jan 31, 2014

Gareth, agree with you that Abbott’s simplest course of action would have been immediate apology. Abbott came a gutser when he announced that Australia shouldn’t be expected to apologise. By saying this the silly bugger put the idea in everybody’s minds (Indonesia never asked for an apology). But give him a break, Abbott had only just been elected and was finding his feet. And there were the background ‘prideful’ issues muddying the waters -- the new Australian government's reasonable but ill-timed threat to return boat people to Indonesia, the precipitous drop in the value of Indonesian currency, the fact that Yudhoyono will not be much longer in office and is thinking about his legacy and successor. It was a classic new guy meets old guy situation. A few points that occurred to me at the time (I made notes because I was thinking of writing a blog post at Project Syndicate on the same topic!):

1. I don’t necessarily agree about the need for “sincerity”. It’s political theatre mainly for the benefit of family members and simple-minded nationalists, both sides know this.
2. Abbott is on record as saying the apology to Australia’s aboriginals should have come sooner, i.e. when his own party was previously in power. And it’s well known Abbott has more first hand knowledge of aboriginal communities than the vast majority of Australian politicians. In other words, in normal circumstances Abbott knows the value of an apology.
3. Unlike one of his predecessors -- president Abdurrahman Wahid (aka Gus Dur) -- Indonesia’s current president Yudhoyono (aka SBY) has not apologised to the victims of the anti-communist purges in the 1960s. SBY said that he does not want to revisit the past. The Indonesian establishment rejected anything resembling South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Gus Dur greatly upset the military when he apologised for the 1960s atrocities and for the suppressions in East Timor (let’s not forget SBY is an army general). In other words, SBY himself ain’t as good as Abbott at apologies.
4. Former head of Indonesia's Intelligence Agency, Abdullah Hendropriyono, happily admitted to bugging Australian military, politicians, and civilians during the East Timor crisis in 1999. After the Abbott-SBY spat Hendropriyono boasted to Australian media that Indonesia could easily tap Australian phones, and, not only that, had a responsibility to spy on "friend or foe”.

Notwithstanding, with hindsight a simple ‘sorry’ would have been a good idea. If there are no big matters of principle at stake, and if it will not dangerously be interpreted as a sign of weakness, the well timed apology is the mark of the experienced and confident leader. At the very least, there were alternative wordings to take the sting out of the wounded pride. You will know this much better than me!
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Wayne Davidson Jan 28, 2014

The grate of guilt holds fast to the coals of Contritions fire, while apologist's rake deceit from the cold ash. RW.
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道歉并不容易

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