Canberra-Jakarta ties under spotlight in election

Canberra-Jakarta ties under spotlight in election

Agencies, Sydney

Australia's strained relationship with Indonesia was thrust
into the spotlight on Thursday after Jakarta accused the Canberra
government of botching communications between the neighbors.

"There is a certain tendency in Australia to communicate
through public diplomacy rather than quiet (diplomacy),"
Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda told Australia's SBS
Television on Wednesday night. "This is certainly in many ways
unacceptable."

Hassan had earlier suggested Australia's diplomatic
methodology was clumsy and counter-productive.

Wirayuda said the two most recent examples of Australian
insensitivity were criticisms made by Howard over Indonesia's
lukewarm support for the U.S. campaign against terrorism, and his
claim that asylum seekers coming from the Middle East and
Afghanistan via Indonesia to Australia were Jakarta's
responsibility.

"To go public and accuse the other side (of) doing something
wrong ... it's not our habit to go through this process in terms
of again responding through public (means)," Wirayuda said. "It's
only worsening the situation."

Australian Prime Minister John Howard acknowledged Thursday
the prickly nature of his country's relationship with Indonesia
as foreign policy emerged a key election issue here.

As voters prepared to cast their ballots in national elections
on Nov. 10, Howard's ruling conservative coalition again found
itself trading veiled barbs with Jakarta.

With the Labor Party flagging a return to an Asia-centric
foreign policy focus, Australia's prime minister conceded
Canberra's relationship with Jakarta was "not an easy one".

Howard said other countries also had difficulty initiating
talks with Jakarta, but would not name them.

"It is not an easy relationship, but it's a relationship that
we patiently work on," Howard told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

Howard also said that Indonesian President Megawati
Soekarnoputri's refusal to accept his phone calls might be
culturally acceptable in Indonesia, but was poorly received here.

"President Megawati's unwillingness to return a phone call is
seen in a particular light in Australia because our culture is
that in those circumstances it's impolite not to return people's
calls," Howard said in a radio interview.

Canberra has signaled its increasing frustration in recent
weeks over Indonesia's inability to stem the rising tide of
Middle Eastern asylum seekers using the archipelago as a stepping
stone to Australia.

Australia's opposition Labor Party, campaigning ahead of Nov.
10 federal elections said the exchange reflected Howard's
failing's with Indonesia.

"Howard's megaphone diplomacy can only harm Australia's
national interests including the prospects for a solution to the
problem of people smuggling," said Labor's foreign affairs
spokesman Laurie Brereton.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the
opposition's foreign policy position "ignored Australia's
traditional allies in favor of an undignified scramble for
regional acceptance".

Downer said "a Labor government would revert to an approach
aimed at ingratiating us with the region at any price," in a
statement reiterating the government's primary allegiance to the
United States.

Relations between the two countries soured in 1999 when
Australia led an international peacekeeping force into East Timor
after the former Indonesian province's vote for independence
sparked massive pro-Jakarta violence that was backed by the
Indonesia police and military.

Months of careful diplomacy managed to warm relations but the
latest spat over asylum seekers has unwound much of the progress
in August.

At a recent Pacific Rim summit in Shanghai, Indonesian
President Megawati Soekarnoputri could not find time for a face-
to-face meeting with Howard.