Susilo could yield thaw in ties for Australian poll winner<\/p>\n
Chris McCall, Agence France-Presse\/Sydney, Australia<\/p>\n
Australia's oft-troubled relations with Indonesia will pose an
\nearly foreign policy challenge for whatever government emerges
\nfrom Saturday's election, which coincides with a change of
\nregimes in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Analysts say the Sept. 20 election of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
\nas Indonesia's president could lead to a warming in ties between
\nAustralia and its giant neighbor to the north.<\/p>\n
Susilo, a retired general popularly known as SBY, is a man
\nfamiliar with the West.<\/p>\n
He once studied in the United States, has been to Australia
\nseveral times and has his own contacts among the Canberra elite.<\/p>\n
Susilo, who is expected to be sworn in as president later this
\nmonth, has already promised an investment-friendly climate that
\nshould help Australian mining firms and other business which have
\nstruggled to keep Indonesian operations solvent in the face of
\nrampant corruption.<\/p>\n
He is also sympathetic to Australian concerns about security
\nand is expected to deal firmly with religious extremists -- a key
\nfor Australia following last month's suicide bombing in front of
\nits embassy in Jakarta by suspected members of the al-Qaeda
\nlinked group Jamaah Islamiyah.<\/p>\n
The issue will come to the forefront immediately after
\nSaturday's election when Australians and Indonesians mark the
\nsecond anniversary of the Oct. 12, 2002, Jamaah Islamiyah bombing
\non the resort island of Bali which killed 202 people, 88 of them
\nAustralians.<\/p>\n
As former chief security minister under outgoing President
\nMegawati Soekarnoputri, Susilo was the point man for Australia to
\ndeal with after the Bali bombings.<\/p>\n
"On the Indonesian side there is no doubt we could not have
\nasked for a better outcome in terms of an Indonesian leader who
\nis well disposed to Australia," Alan Dupont, a political analyst
\nwith the Lowy Institute, told AFP.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister John Howard said on Thursday that meeting the
\nnew Indonesian leader would be a foreign policy priority if he is
\nreelected.<\/p>\n
"I want to have an early meeting with the newly elected
\npresident," Howard said, calling Susilo "a very even man" and
\n"somebody who will be very important to Australia in the years
\nahead".<\/p>\n
The leader of the opposition Labor Party, Mark Latham, has for
\nhis part vowed to refocus foreign policy on Australia's regional
\nneighbors if elected, a stance likely to be welcomed in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
But Dupont cautioned that any warming in bilateral relations
\nbetween the two nations would be a gradual process, whoever is
\nAustralia's leader.<\/p>\n
Like other Indonesian presidents, Susilo will be constrained
\nby the political realities of Muslim-dominated Indonesia, where
\nthe motives of predominantly white, Christian Australia are
\nregarded with suspicion, he said.<\/p>\n
Susilo will not want to be seen at home as the West's stooge.<\/p>\n
"The political reality in Indonesia is that you cannot move
\nquickly. It has got to be a very softly, softly approach," he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
"There are some unrealistic expectations about what Susilo
\nwill do on that front."<\/p>\n
If Howard is reelected on Saturday as recent opinion polls
\nsuggest, it could take longer to see a warming in ties, Dupont
\nsuggested, noting that the conservative leader had frequently
\nalienated Indonesians during his eight years in office.<\/p>\n
He infuriated many in Jakarta by leading the international
\nintervention in East Timor in 1999 as the province sought
\nindependence from Jakarta.<\/p>\n
His hard-line crackdown on asylum seekers before the previous
\nelection in 2001 then drew widespread criticism as did a wave of
\nraids on Indonesian Muslim homes in Australia that followed the
\nBali bombing.<\/p>\n
At the height of sour relations after Megawati became
\npresident in 2001, she refused to even take phone calls from
\nHoward.<\/p>\n
"They do not like Howard. That is a reality," Dupont said.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/susilo-could-yield-thaw-in-ties-for-australian-poll-winner-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }