Blast signals maturity in Australia-Indonesia ties

Blast signals maturity in Australia-Indonesia ties

Michael Christie, Reuters, Sydney

Australia's often testy ties with its giant Muslim neighbor
Indonesia have entered a new and finely balanced phase as dozens
of Australian police and agents roam Bali in the aftermath of the
bomb attacks on tourists.

Jakarta's apparent resolve to finally take on Islamic
extremists and its decision to allow Australian police some clout
in the Bali investigations could herald a new era of cooperation
in relations long marked by mistrust, analysts said on Friday.

But Canberra must take care to ensure that its determination
to hunt down the killers of 184 people -- 114 of whom are feared
to be Australian -- does not aggravate suspicion in Indonesia
about Australia's motives since it led a UN force into East
Timor.

"It is a fine line that is being trod here by Australia, but
also by Indonesia," said Alan Dupont, of the Asia Pacific
Security Program at the Australian National University.

"Literally every practical measure that's taken has the
potential to ruffle feathers in Indonesia if it's not handled
sensitively," he said.

The government of Prime Minister John Howard faces intense
demands in Australia to bring to justice the perpetrators of the
attacks on nightclubs packed with revelers at Bali's Kuta Beach.
But there is only so much Australia can do alone.

"However difficult it is, we can't invade the place, we can't
just take it over, we have to work with the locals," Howard said
in a Sydney radio interview this week.

So far Indonesia has responded with proposed anti-terrorism
laws -- a heartening development for Washington and Canberra
which had been pressing the world's most populous Muslim country
in vain to play a more vigorous role in the "war on terrorism".

Howard has been at pains to praise President Megawati
Soekarnoputri, who a year ago refused to take his calls.

But his government has also made its resolve clear, sending
two ministers, teams of federal police, counter-terrorism agents
and forensics experts to Indonesia in the immediate aftermath.
Howard himself went to Bali on Thursday.

"There is considerable pressure on the government at the
moment to be seen to be doing something," said Michael van
Langenberg, a Southeast Asian specialist at Sydney University.
"And I think there is a lot of pressure put on Jakarta to permit
that to happen."

Analysts said the low-key but unrelenting pressure on
Indonesia marks a final departure from what they call a "good
relations at all cost" policy that previously muzzled Australian
government criticism of Jakarta.

Apart from some "megaphone" diplomacy over boatpeople, when
Howard lashed out at Indonesia's unwillingness to halt people
smuggling in remarks many analysts attribute to domestic
politicking, Canberra has been careful since the East Timor
intervention in 1999 not to upset its neighbor.

Many Indonesian politicians and military leaders regard East
Timor's bloody secession as an Australian-instigated conspiracy
and believe Canberra harbors similar independence aspirations for
other restless provinces, like Papua.

Paradoxically, the Australian presence on Indonesian soil may
ultimately inflame the Islamic extremism that officials are
blaming for the Bali attacks, said Scott Burchill, an
international relations expert at Melbourne's Deakin University.

Others fear that more forceful diplomacy focused on the war on
terrorism will backfire if Indonesia, hamstrung by domestic
politics, fails to catch the culprits.

"In the end we cannot afford to hold the future of our
relationship with Indonesia hostage to a satisfactory outcome
that the government in Jakarta may be incapable of delivering
anyway," wrote Hugh White, director of the Australian Strategic
Policy Institute, in a commentary.