A welcome thaw

A welcome thaw

The visit to Canberra and Sydney by the Indonesian Foreign
Minister, Hassan Wirayuda, has been more successful than would
have seemed likely a month or two ago.

The most concrete result of the Wirayuda visit is an agreement
that the two nations should co-sponsor an international
conference, probably in Jakarta in February, on the regional
people smuggling problem. The hope is that it will include
countries from which asylum seekers emanate or find their first
asylum -- such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Jordan and Iran -- transit

countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, and destination countries
like Australia. Behind the proposal is a sensible
acknowledgement, strongly urged by the Indonesians, that people
smuggling is an international problem that requires a coordinated
international response. Unilateral deterrent measures, ad hoc
stratagems like the Howard Government's so-called "Pacific
solution" and bilateral arrangements between Australia and
Indonesia have been shown to be, at best, inadequate
alternatives.

Conference resolutions, of course, achieve little unless they
lead to firm action. In the case of Indonesia, the problem is not
recalcitrance on the part of the national government but its
limited ability to discipline military and bureaucratic officials
across a vast archipelago. That said, Wirayuda's mission seems a
promising start to a new regional process for dealing with the
challenge posed by people smugglers and their hapless client
victims. It also holds out the prospect of a more mature,
constructive relationship between Jakarta and Canberra.

-- The Sydney Morning Herald