K. Candra Negara revealed that he had a dream to live in Dubai.

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

A journalist-turned-diplomat on an official visit to Dubai in 2019, who got impressed by its feel and architectural landscape, has been assigned as the new Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia for Dubai and the Northern Emirates.

He is K. Candra Negara and in an interview with Gulf Today on Monday evening admitted it was a wish come true. His other foreign postings in a span of 25 years were in Bogota, Colombia; Washington, D.C., USA; and Ottawa, Canada.

That 2019 official visit was made possible because Negara was among Jakarta’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy/Tourism and Creative Economy delegation at the Sept.10 Expo2020 Dubai Indonesian Pavilion groundbreaking ceremonies at the Opportunity Sector of the World Exposition site.

His desire to be of service to his Motherland and countrymen in Dubai and the Northern Emirates was sculpted on his first morning in that 2019 trip, engaging in his routine physical exercises: “I was on Sheikh Zayed Road. I found myself saying that if ever I would be given the post, I would more than be happy. I would very gladly accept it. So you see, it is a wish come true.”

The International Relations graduate from the Airlangga University in his home province of Surabaya was offered an internship at the hard-hitting Tempo, “the biggest and largest weekly news magazine” in the world’s largest archipelago in the 1990s. That paved the way for a journalism career he fondly remembers. He bowed to his mother’s request for him to be in public service like his dad.

Twenty-five years hence, Negara, who volunteered he loves getting out of his comfort zone, is “challenged” as well as excited at enhancing more the bilateral relations between his home country and the host government, he had described as “at its peak.” He volunteered that being an ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) official, he is committed to what he could contribute to the advancement of the 10-member aggrupation of approximately 600 million people by way of investments, exports and people-to-people connection by way of Indonesia: “We all ASEANS have that brotherly ties. Dubai and the UAE is a hub. We access Africa from here. And Africa is growing.”

Negara and family arrived in the UAE on Feb.15: “Dubai is a dynamic city. It has the 2040 Plan. I have been to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah and everything and everyone is so vibrant; the spirit, the culture, everything.”