Howard fails to consult Indonesia on refugee crisis<\/p>\n
By Rob Goodfellow<\/p>\n
WOLLONGONG, New South Wales (JP): The refugee crisis off
\nChristmas Island aboard the Norwegian Container ship M.V Tampa
\nhas demonstrated that the Conservative Government of Prime
\nMinister John Howard does not understand how to work
\ncooperatively with Indonesia. By making a unilateral decision to
\nprevent the entry of Afghan asylum seekers into Australian
\nterritorial waters, Howard's objective was twofold.<\/p>\n
First, his appeal was directly to the Australian electorate.
\nHis intention has clearly been to demonstrate that he was
\nprepared to be tough with "illegal immigration", which has
\nemerged as a potentially explosive issue in an election year.<\/p>\n
There are reports of at least 5,000 Middle Eastern refugees
\nencamped on Lombok alone, with an inestimable number already in
\nJakarta, Bali and in Kupang, West Timor. In addition, various
\nassessments suggest that there may be up to 100,000 refugees in
\nvarious stages of departure, all-heading to Australia via
\nIndonesian ports. It appears that unchecked, large groups of
\nrefugees could be arriving, "coincidentally", right about the
\ntime that Australians go to the polls for a general election some
\ntime this November.<\/p>\n
Howard's uncompromising policy has proven, at least in the
\nvery short term, to be domestically popular, although two days
\nafter Australian Secret Air Service Commandos (SAS) became
\ninvolved, the Australian popular press changed tact. At first
\narticles appeared which demonized refugees as "illegals" who had
\nflaunted Australian law and carried with them the potential to
\nspread exotic diseases.<\/p>\n
Then in the spirit of generating enough controversy, the press
\npredictably began to appeal to the refugees' "underdog status", a
\npowerful sentiment in a country that at least believes in the
\nmyth of egalitarianism.<\/p>\n
Time was running out. In the end New Zealand and the tiny
\nIsland of Nauru were essentially bought off to save face for the
\nHoward Government as pressure was brought to bear by the United
\nNations. However, the real issue remains. If the problem is one
\nthat essentially involves two neighbors, Australia and Indonesia,
\nwhat went wrong and why? Why did Howard not have a process in
\nplace that involved a dialog with Indonesia over the issue of
\npeople smuggling out of Indonesian ports? Why is President
\nMegawati Soekarnoputri not returning Howard's telephone calls?
\nWhy is Australia blaming Indonesia for a "lack of cooperation"?<\/p>\n
Australians still do not fully appreciate the strong feelings
\nthat sections of the elite in Indonesia, especially the armed
\nforces, have over East Timor. The well debated issues of militia
\nviolence and Indonesian culpability aside, the Javanese dominated
\nofficer corps of the Indonesian Military (TNI), once offended,
\nare very patient in getting their revenge. The Australian
\ngovernment does not appreciate that the Indonesian Military and
\nthe present government have no reason whatsoever to go out of
\ntheir way to generate solutions to a situation which has the
\npotential to embarrass the Howard Government -- the same
\nadministration deemed responsible for "betraying" Indonesia when
\nthe country was most vulnerable during the darkest days of the
\nAsian monetary crisis.<\/p>\n
In fact it is in Indonesia's interests to expedite the
\ndeparture of refugees from their shores, to turn a "blind eye" to
\nthe lucrative people smuggling rackets, and to sit back and watch
\nthe show. Furthermore Indonesia is now preoccupied with economic
\nrecovery and territorial integrity. Why should Indonesia want to
\nuse scarce state resources on the issue of illegal immigrants
\nwhen the express intention of the refugees is to pass through
\nIndonesia quickly en route to north Western Australia?<\/p>\n
Last year the Australian Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock
\ncommissioned a foreign language documentary movie which was aired
\nat Australia's expense in countries like Pakistan. The intention
\nof what was effectively a propaganda film was to demonstrate to
\npotential asylum seekers (many of whom were in refugee camps and
\ndid not have access to clean drinking water let alone a
\ntelevision set) that should they survive the attacks of murderous
\npirates, giant mid-ocean whirlpools, and tropical storms, and
\narrive in Australia, then they were likely to be eaten by sharks,
\nmauled by giant crocodiles, bitten by snakes, or left languishing
\nin dusty refugees camps in the middle of the Simpson Dessert.<\/p>\n
The exercise was not only a complete waste of public money but
\nmore importantly it was a lost opportunity to create a
\ncooperative process with Indonesia, one that would have not only
\nforestalled the present crisis, but gone part way to mend the
\nbilateral relationship soured over the Interfet operation in East
\nTimor.<\/p>\n
Such a solution would first have to involve an appropriate
\n"behind the scenes" dialog, one which demonstrated that Australia
\nunderstood the basic modus operandi of census-decision-making in
\nIndonesian politics, and one that involved an actual relationship
\nof trust between real people at the level of government, foreign
\naffairs and the military.<\/p>\n
Such a process would have to involve making Indonesia a
\npartner in generating a solution rather than, as Howard suggests,
\njust an irritating part of the problem. It would have to seek
\nways of working cooperatively with Indonesia so that it was in
\nIndonesia's best interests to work with Australia. Rather Howard
\nmade the very risky presumption that just because he boldly
\ndeclared on national television that "he had placed a telephone
\ncall to Mrs Megawati" that she was in any way obliged to pick up
\nthe phone. Now Howard is looking a little foolish and Megawati is
\nlooking like she has again showed who is really in control and
\nwhy her support cannot be taken for granted just because the
\nwhite man whistles.<\/p>\n
The Howard Government appears to be clueless on how to manage
\nthe Australian-Indonesian relationship, as demonstrated in the
\nM.V Tampa incident. If Howard survives the November Federal
\nElection, then the arrival of thousands of Afghans off the Coast
\nof Western Australia in the next 12 months will certainly cause
\nhim to rethink his approach to Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The writer is a cross-cultural specialist based at the University
\nof Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia.<\/p>",
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