East Timor crisis strains Australian-Indonesian ties<\/p>\n
By Sid Astbury<\/p>\n
SYDNEY (DPA): Has Australia humiliated its giant neighbor by
\nraising an international brigade to ensure East Timor gets the
\nfreedom it was promised?<\/p>\n
Or has Indonesia embarrassed its former defense pact partner
\nby allowing a cataclysm in what is still part of the republic
\neven though the 800,000 East Timorese have voted overwhelmingly
\nto leave?<\/p>\n
The answer that analysts in Jakarta and Canberra give to both
\nquestions is a resounding \"Yes\".<\/p>\n
Australia stands accused of persuading a lame duck president
\nto go over the heads of his generals and allow a UN-supervised
\nindependence referendum in East Timor. It then called in the
\ninternational cavalry to make sure the vote stuck and the half-
\nisland got its freedom.<\/p>\n
Jakarta made a mess of East Timor. Australia rubbed its nose
\nin that mess.<\/p>\n
For Dewi Fortuna Anwar, President B.J. Habibie's national
\nsecurity adviser, Australia is deserving of the flak it is
\ntaking. Fortuna Anwar, a graduate of Melbourne's Monash
\nUniversity, points as evidence to the daily demonstrations
\noutside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, the flag-burnings and
\nthe vitriolic newspaper editorials.<\/p>\n
\"There's an awful lot of antagonism towards Australia. It's
\nbecoming a national issue,\" she says, arguing that the bad
\nfeeling simply reflects the anti-Indonesian sentiment in
\nAustralia.<\/p>\n
But a lot of the angst is frustration -- frustration at the
\nbehavior of the military and how a proud country's international
\nreputation has been laid low. Australia has become a convenient
\nscapegoat for Indonesia's embarrassment over East Timor.<\/p>\n
Fortuna Anwar says Jakarta has been let down by Australia, the
\nonly Western power to have recognized the incorporation of East
\nTimor into Indonesia and the only country with which Jakarta had
\nsigned a defense agreement -- an agreement that Jakarta ripped up
\nlast week.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister John Howard said the policy of previous
\nAustralian governments had been to put good relations with
\nJakarta above everything else. That meant not giving succor to
\nseparatist East Timorese.<\/p>\n
But last month's referendum in East Timor changed things
\nirrevocably. Finally, Canberra was obliged to put principles
\nabove practical politics.<\/p>\n
Said Alexander Downer, Australia's often bristly foreign
\nminister: \"It's important we have a constructive relationship
\nwith Indonesia. But equally it can't be a relationship at any
\nprice.\"<\/p>\n
Downer argues that the old chummy relationship ended when
\nJakarta failed to deliver on a promise made to the international
\ncommunity: Honoring the outcome of an East Timor referendum no
\nmatter how unpalatable.<\/p>\n
Said Downer: \"You can't expect the Australian people just to
\nignore that sort of barbaric action in East Timor, to say nothing
\nabout it and to say the relationship with Jakarta is more
\nimportant than expressing any criticism of what's going on.\"<\/p>\n
The abrupt switch in tone helps explain Jakarta's feelings of
\nbetrayal.<\/p>\n
Former Prime Minister Paul Keating says the relationship with
\nJakarta has reached an \"all-time low\" and former ambassador to
\nJakarta Rawdon Dalrymple warns that ties won't be repaired for a
\ngeneration.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister John Howard doesn't accept this argument,
\nclaiming that the relationship is now on a better footing because
\nit is based on honesty and straight talking. There is no \"special
\nrelationship\" as there was under Keating -- a great friend and
\nadmirer of former President Soeharto.<\/p>\n
Howard better be right: The tiff over Timor has put at risk
\nAustralia's A$2.7 billion (US$1.75 billion) in exports to
\nIndonesia. It has also jeopardized the future of the 300
\nAustralian companies who have big investments in Indonesia.<\/p>",
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