Canberra-Jakarta ties under spotlight in election<\/p>\n
Agencies, Sydney<\/p>\n
Australia's strained relationship with Indonesia was thrust
\ninto the spotlight on Thursday after Jakarta accused the Canberra
\ngovernment of botching communications between the neighbors.<\/p>\n
\"There is a certain tendency in Australia to communicate
\nthrough public diplomacy rather than quiet (diplomacy),\"
\nIndonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda told Australia's SBS
\nTelevision on Wednesday night. \"This is certainly in many ways
\nunacceptable.\"<\/p>\n
Hassan had earlier suggested Australia's diplomatic
\nmethodology was clumsy and counter-productive.<\/p>\n
Wirayuda said the two most recent examples of Australian
\ninsensitivity were criticisms made by Howard over Indonesia's
\nlukewarm support for the U.S. campaign against terrorism, and his
\nclaim that asylum seekers coming from the Middle East and
\nAfghanistan via Indonesia to Australia were Jakarta's
\nresponsibility.<\/p>\n
\"To go public and accuse the other side (of) doing something
\nwrong ... it's not our habit to go through this process in terms
\nof again responding through public (means),\" Wirayuda said. \"It's
\nonly worsening the situation.\"<\/p>\n
Australian Prime Minister John Howard acknowledged Thursday
\nthe prickly nature of his country's relationship with Indonesia
\nas foreign policy emerged a key election issue here.<\/p>\n
As voters prepared to cast their ballots in national elections
\non Nov. 10, Howard's ruling conservative coalition again found
\nitself trading veiled barbs with Jakarta.<\/p>\n
With the Labor Party flagging a return to an Asia-centric
\nforeign policy focus, Australia's prime minister conceded
\nCanberra's relationship with Jakarta was \"not an easy one\".<\/p>\n
Howard said other countries also had difficulty initiating
\ntalks with Jakarta, but would not name them.<\/p>\n
\"It is not an easy relationship, but it's a relationship that
\nwe patiently work on,\" Howard told Melbourne radio station 3AW.<\/p>\n
Howard also said that Indonesian President Megawati
\nSoekarnoputri's refusal to accept his phone calls might be
\nculturally acceptable in Indonesia, but was poorly received here.<\/p>\n
\"President Megawati's unwillingness to return a phone call is
\nseen in a particular light in Australia because our culture is
\nthat in those circumstances it's impolite not to return people's
\ncalls,\" Howard said in a radio interview.<\/p>\n
Canberra has signaled its increasing frustration in recent
\nweeks over Indonesia's inability to stem the rising tide of
\nMiddle Eastern asylum seekers using the archipelago as a stepping
\nstone to Australia.<\/p>\n
Australia's opposition Labor Party, campaigning ahead of Nov.
\n10 federal elections said the exchange reflected Howard's
\nfailing's with Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"Howard's megaphone diplomacy can only harm Australia's
\nnational interests including the prospects for a solution to the
\nproblem of people smuggling,\" said Labor's foreign affairs
\nspokesman Laurie Brereton.<\/p>\n
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the
\nopposition's foreign policy position \"ignored Australia's
\ntraditional allies in favor of an undignified scramble for
\nregional acceptance\".<\/p>\n
Downer said \"a Labor government would revert to an approach
\naimed at ingratiating us with the region at any price,\" in a
\nstatement reiterating the government's primary allegiance to the
\nUnited States.<\/p>\n
Relations between the two countries soured in 1999 when
\nAustralia led an international peacekeeping force into East Timor
\nafter the former Indonesian province's vote for independence
\nsparked massive pro-Jakarta violence that was backed by the
\nIndonesia police and military.<\/p>\n
Months of careful diplomacy managed to warm relations but the
\nlatest spat over asylum seekers has unwound much of the progress
\nin August.<\/p>\n
At a recent Pacific Rim summit in Shanghai, Indonesian
\nPresident Megawati Soekarnoputri could not find time for a face-
\nto-face meeting with Howard.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/canberra-jakarta-ties-under-spotlight-in-election-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}