Australia defends choice of ambassador to RI

Australia defends choice of ambassador to RI

Agence France-Presse, Sydney, Australia

Australia on Sunday defended its choice of the former immigration
department chief as ambassador to Indonesia after a Jakarta
lawmaker said the appointment could be blocked because of
"racist" and "rude" behavior by his officials.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the appointee, Bill
Farmer, was "one our best diplomats". And Prime Minister John
Howard, who is visiting Washington, told reporters he was
confident the appointment would go ahead.

But Indonesian member of the House of Representatives Djoko
Susilo, who sits on the commission for security, defense and
foreign affairs which vets diplomatic postings, questioned
Farmer's suitability.

Under Farmer's leadership the Australian immigration
department, "was biased if not tending to be racist," Susilo told
AFP.

He cited cases of senior Indonesian government officials,
invited by Canberra, being "rudely" treated by immigration
officials in Australia, "simply because their names appear Muslim
and that they are Indonesians".

Djoko said his concern was shared by many other
parliamentarians.

"If we deem that his appointment would not be in the best
interest of both Indonesia and Australia, if we deem that his
appointment will only jeopardize bilateral ties, then we will
reject him," Djoko said.

Parliament had never vetoed an ambassador before, he said,
"but that does not mean that it is impossible, especially when we
see his track record which is quite controversial".

Farmer's appointment was also controversial in Australia, as
he was named to the new job just days before the government
released a scathing official report last week into a series of
blunders and injustices by the immigration department.

Howard said, however, the government discussed Farmer's
appointment with Indonesia before it was made public "and they
did not raise any objections to his proposed appointment being
announced.

"They would reserve the right to go through what the processes
are but I can't imagine there'll be any difficulty. I have
reasonable confidence ... that it will be approved," he said.

Minister Vanstone said she and Farmer had both been "very
warmly welcomed" in Indonesia in the past.

"I've seen, when I was in Indonesia on a couple of occasions
in this portfolio, nothing but evidence of very close, strong and
warm relationships," she said.

Indonesia was "a very important posting ... and frankly one
that's quite a dangerous posting as we see from the experiences
of the current ambassador".

This was a reference to the September 2004 attack on the
Australian embassy in Jakarta in which 11 people and a suicide
bomber were killed.