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.