Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Former Indonesian ambassador to Australia Sabam Pandapotan Siagian, who was also a noted figure in the national media, died of illness at the Siloam hospital here on Friday. He was 84.

"Our senior, Mr. Sabam Siagian, passed away at the Siloam Hospital in Semanggi, Jakarta, at 04.30 p.m.," a report put out in a whatsapp chat group of the Doctor Soetomo Press Institution (LPDS), said.

Born in Jakarta on May 4, 1932, Sabam was Indonesias ambassador to Australia from 1991 to 1994, and was also chief of the Indonesia-Australia Business Council.

Sabam worked for the research division at the UN representatives offfice in Jakarta during the mid-1960s.

In 1978, he was a Nieman Fellow for Journalism at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, the United States.

As a journalist, Sabam wrote a lot about international issues for the English daily, Jakarta Post, which he helped establish in 1983.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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