SANDRI Ghifari, an alumnus of Padjadjaran University in Bandung, West Java, admits to a sense of relief. The 2006 economics faculty graduate successfully passed a test on substantive issues in the 2008 selection process for Foreign Affairs Department officials. Yet the year before, he failed at the same stage.

Now Sandri and 100 of his fellow graduates, the class of 33, are waiting their turn for an assignment to foreign affairs representative o