Deadly bombings could aid Australia-RI ties: Analysts
Deadly bombings could aid Australia-RI ties: Analysts
Associated Press, Sydney, Australia
The deadly bombings in Bali could help ease decades of tension between Australia and Indonesia and force Jakarta to clamp down on terrorism, academics and officials said on Monday.
"I think the inevitability will be that Australia will work more closely with Indonesia," said Prof. James Fox of the Australian National University.
"Indonesia can ill afford this kind of blow - investment will go down, tourism will be dead," he said, adding that Indonesia will cooperate with Western nations to fight terrorism, though "not necessarily with fanfare."
Australia must concentrate on rebuilding relations with Indonesia following bombings in Bali, Hugh White, director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said on Monday.
White said the weekend bombings in Bali will switch the Australian government's focus from Iraq back on the Asian region and its northern neighbor Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation.
White said the scale and proximity of the Bali attack "will bring home to people that terrorism is something we need to deal with here."
"We do live in a part of the world, adjacent to Southeast Asia, in which terrorism is a real phenomenon," White said on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Nearly 200 people were killed and hundreds injured on Saturday when two bombs ripped through the popular Kuta Beach nightclub district on Indonesia's Bali island. The Australian government said on Monday that 14 Australians were confirmed dead, 110 injured and almost 220 missing.
While close geographically, Australia and Indonesia are worlds apart in culture and religious makeup - the Southeast Asian nation is the world's most populous Muslim country, while its southern neighbor is predominantly Christian.
The two have clashed over Jakarta's record on human rights and democracy.
Some have suggested Australia sent troops to fight alongside the United States Vietnam in the hope that Washington would come to Canberra's aid if Indonesia ever tried to invade Australia.
Canberra-Jakarta relations plumbed new depths in 1999, when Australian troops led an international force into nearby East Timor to quell violence blamed on pro-Jakarta militias when the former Indonesian province voted for independence.
Jakarta has recently been accused of dragging its heels on anti-terrorism efforts. Vice President Hamzah Haz has expressed sympathy for Islamic militants. An anti-terror law has languished in the Parliament for months.
Fox, who heads the University's research school of Pacific and Asian Studies in Canberra, said the bombings have likely shocked even hard-line Muslims in Indonesia.
Under pressure from Australia and the United States, they will now have little choice but to support President Megawati Soekarnoputri's efforts to fight terrorism, he added.
"I think they may have been deluding themselves to some extent, saying it (terrorism) wasn't a problem, but now they can see it's a huge problem," Fox said.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer echoed Fox's views.
Indonesia's government and its security services "certainly have a mixed record" in fighting terrorism - but the bombing had sent shock waves through Jakarta, he said.
"I think this has eliminated any debate in Indonesia about the dangers of terrorism, and I think it will probably lead to much stronger and effective cooperation with other countries," Downer said Monday.
But Aldo Borgu of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a government-funded think tank, said it may not be easy convincing Indonesia to join the war on terror.
"The first priority of the government is going to be to convince the Indonesians to accept international help and assistance in uncovering the perpetrators of this crime," Borgu said. "That's going to put a lot of pressure on our relationship."
The Australian government's national security committee is meeting on Monday to review the country's security measures in the wake of the attack.
"We've got to get back to the business of rebuilding the relationship with Indonesia," White said.
"Not just in terms of trying to find out who is responsible for this particular event, but it reinforces how important to us good relations with Indonesia are and how important it is we get back to a more cooperative, sustainable relationship with them."