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.