Ali Alatas (Arabic: علي العطاس ʿAlī al-ʿAṭṭās; 4 November 1932 – 11 December 2008[3][4]) was an Indonesian diplomat of Ba 'Alawi sada descent,[5][6] who served as the country's foreign minister from 1988 to 1999.

"[8] His obituary by Reuters said Alatas "was a widely respected figure in the region tipped at one stage to be a possible United Nations secretary-general" but that his later career was "haunted by the Suharto era and the turmoil in East Timor," the former Portuguese colony that voted for independence from Indonesia in 1999.

[7] His obituary in The Guardian argued that a 1991 massacre of anti-Indonesian demonstrators at Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, East Timor's capital, probably prevented Alatas from taking charge of the UN.

[14] On 11 December 2008, Alatas died at 7.30am, at the age of 76 of a heart attack at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore,[15] with his wife and his three daughters at his bedside.

[16] At the Indonesian Embassy in Sungai Hanching on 13 December, Lim Jock Seng, Brunei Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade II, signed a condolence book on behalf of the Bruneian government.