Indonesia not a threat to Australia: Ambassador

Indonesia not a threat to Australia: Ambassador

Ivy Susanti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Australian Ambassador to Indonesia David Ritchie questioned a
defense think-tank report released in Canberra on Wednesday,
which said Australians believed Indonesia poses the greatest
threat to their national security.

A study of opinion polls on security issues conducted by the
independent Australian Strategic Policy Institute -- a strategic
and defense think-tank -- showed that Indonesia was perceived as
a far greater threat than other countries in the region.

"I think neither of those things are actually true," Ritchie
told a gathering of editors and business executives in Jakarta on
Wednesday.

He said the report indicated misperceptions among Australians
about Indonesia but that these misunderstandings existed in both
countries. "There is a lack of knowledge on both sides on the
nature of both the countries," Ritchie said.

There were some Australians who had little or no knowledge
about the nature of Islam in Indonesia, the country's culture or
its political system, Ritchie said. There were also Indonesians
who did not understand the nature of Australian society, he said.

However, despite this both Indonesians and Australians had
joined together to fight terrorism, he said.

Ritchie said Australians had sympathized with Indonesians --
especially the Balinese -- after the Bali bombing in October
2002, instead of strongly criticizing the Indonesian government,
which they believed could have done something to prevent terror
attacks.

"That shows more than what a lot of the surveys show," said
Ritchie, who has been serving in Jakarta for almost two years.

The members of the al-Qaeda affiliated Jamaah Islamiyah group
-- of mostly Indonesians -- were blamed for the bombings that
killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, on Bali.

The institute surveyed opinion polls on defense issues dating
back to the 1960s and found Australians now saw less chance of a
foreign security threat than at any time during the past 30
years.

It cited a 2001 survey showing that 31 percent of Australians
believed Indonesia would very likely to pose a threat to
Australia's security, compared with 9 percent for China, 6
percent for Malaysia and 5 percent for Japan, AP reported.

"However, to the extent that the public identifies a security
threat to Australia, there is a greater consensus than ever
before that the threat comes from one country: Indonesia," it was
quoted by AFP as saying.

"Notwithstanding improved bilateral relations particularly
during the 1980s and 1990s, the public's concern about Indonesia
has increased almost consistently since opinion polls first began
to track it in the late 1960s," the report said.

"This worry does not seem to be justified, either by Jakarta's
intent, or by the level of Indonesian military capability. In
part the poll data reflects the recent experience of instability
in East Timor (in 1999)."

The report also attempted to gauge Australian attitudes toward
casualties in major military operations.

It found the public would accept unlimited casualties if the
military were directly protecting Australia from external threat.
But the tolerance for fatalities declined markedly for lesser
operations against drug dealers, human traffickers, in
peacekeeping operations or when supporting the United Nations.

About one-third of Australians were not ready to accept any
casualties at all in these operations, the report found.

The institute was established by the Australian government.