Stable RI vital to Australia<\/p>\n
By Richard Woolcott<\/p>\n
SYDNEY: The Australia-Indonesia Agreement on Maintaining
\nSecurity is an historic development in our efforts to put more
\nsubstance into our most important relations with our largest,
\nmost complex, most resource-rich and most populous neighbor.<\/p>\n
The government is to be congratulated for taking this
\ninitiative. So is the Opposition for its prompt in-principle
\nsupport, as a bipartisan approach to Indonesia is essential.<\/p>\n
Apart from the practical value of regular ministerial
\nconsultations on common security, the symbolic importance of the
\nagreement is that it shows that the government is keeping its
\nfocus on the fundamental issue, that is the great importance to
\nAustralia of our engagement with Indonesia.<\/p>\n
It also emphasizes to the wider Australian community that the
\ngovernment does not see Indonesia as a threat and that we see our
\nfuture security and Indonesia's security in the region as a
\nshared interest.<\/p>\n
Much of the comment since the agreement was announced has
\nfocused on an alleged policy conflict between concerns about the
\nsituation in East Timor and our growing security links with the
\ngovernment which is occupying East Timor. While the treaty looks
\nto promote a stable united Indonesia, and while this implies that
\ninternal disruption is undesirable, it does not cover Indonesia's
\ninternal problems in provinces such as Aceh, Irian Jaya and East
\nTimor. It deals with external threats.<\/p>\n
For some years now, I have been worried at the extent to which
\na combination of well-intentioned people with genuine concerns
\nabout the situation in East Timor and human rights in Indonesia,
\nleft-wing politicians who have not forgiven Indonesia for the
\ndestruction of the Indonesian Communist party in the upheaval of
\n1965, and pro-Fretilin East Timorese refugees, who have chosen to
\nuse Australia as a base for anti-Indonesian activities, have
\nsought to stir up antagonism towards Indonesia in the wider
\ncommunity.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has failed so far to win the hearts and minds of the
\nmajority of the politically conscious East Timorese. But
\nAustralia has recognized de jure Indonesian sovereignty over East
\nTimor since 1979.<\/p>\n
As the Prime Minister said recently, East Timor is a province
\nof Indonesia and the problems in East Timor are essentially for
\nthe Indonesians to sort out. Portugal, the Secretary General of
\nthe UN and representatives of groups in East timor are also
\ninvolved.<\/p>\n
Eventually, an Indonesian government might agree to a greater
\ndegree of autonomy for East Timor but, as of now, the East Timor
\nlobby should accept that the time for an act of self-
\ndetermination after 20 years has passed and that demanding
\nindependence is a lost cause which raises false hopes, prolongs
\nconflict and costs lives.<\/p>\n
Rather, the interests of the people of East Timor would be
\nbetter served by programs to reduce the military presence, to
\nimprove conditions in both East and West Timor, and in trying to
\npromote reconciliation between alienated East Timorese and the
\ncentral government.<\/p>\n
We sometimes forget that there has never been a United
\nNations-supervised act of self-determination in any former
\nPortuguese colony and there will not be one in Macao when it is
\nintegrated into China.<\/p>\n
Given the shambles into which the Portuguese decolonization
\nprocess degenerated in the early 1970s, and India's earlier
\nincorporation of Goa, it is curious that we should have expected
\na more orderly process in Portugal's most distant and neglected
\ncolony.<\/p>\n
The issue for Australia is not one of choosing between
\nprinciple and expediency, or between morality and pragmatism, but
\nit is a more complex one of achieving a proper balance between
\ndifferent interests. Concerns about human rights and the
\nsituation in East timor are two strands in a many sided
\nrelationship.<\/p>\n
They are important but, as the Prime Minister has made clear,
\nthey cannot drive the relationship, or be given excessive weight
\nin relation to other important aspects of it, such as our common
\nsecurity interests (which were enshrined in the treaty signed on
\nDec. 18), our growing economic and commercial links, including
\nour shared support for free trade and our multilateral
\ncooperation on matters such as disarmament, Cambodia and on a
\nrange of ASEAN issues.<\/p>\n
This is a relationship of fundamental importance to
\nAustralia's future and our policy cannot be allowed to be held
\nhostage by the East Timorese lobby. The Security Treaty
\nunderlines this.<\/p>\n
Many Australians seem to think we can impose our will on
\nIndonesia. The simple fact is that we cannot do so. Moreover,
\nIndonesia is the major power in ASEAN and will have the support
\nof its six ASEAN allies on regional issues such as East Timor and
\nany perceived interference in its domestic affairs.<\/p>\n
The main conclusion one can draw from the agreement on
\nsecurity is that Keating has decided to make clear to the
\nAustralian public and to Indonesia that he intends to focus on
\nthe fundamental issue; that is, on the overriding importance of a
\nsound long-term relationship with this vast neighbor of 190
\nmillion people to our immediate north. Strengthening the
\nrelationship with Indonesia is now a cornerstone of our Asia-
\nPacific policy, with which other policies on specific issues need
\nto be coordinated.<\/p>\n
We need to recognize the great benefits Australia has derived
\nfrom a stable Indonesia under its President, Soeharto. An
\nunstable, poor, unpredictable Indonesia would be a nightmare for
\nAustralia and result in the diversion of substantial resources to
\nincreased defense expenditure. The new agreement moves us in the
\nopposite direction and underpins our national interest in a
\nstable, united, prosperous and peaceful Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The writer is a former secretary of the Department of Foreign
\nAffairs and Trade and a former ambassador to Indonesia. He is
\nchairman of the Australia-Indonesia Institute.<\/p>\n
-- The Weekend Australian<\/p>\n
Window: Many Australians seem to think we can impose our will on
\nIndonesia. The simple fact is that we cannot do so.<\/p>",
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