'Indonesia should be firmer with Australia'
'Indonesia should be firmer with Australia'
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government should be more stern in protesting the recent
raids by Australia's intelligence agency against Indonesians
living in Australia as part of its crackdown against terrorists,
a noted international relations analyst said.
Juwono Sudarsono, also a former defense and education
minister, said on Saturday that this was not the first time
Canberra's domestic politics had cost Indonesia, and such actions
must not happen again in the future.
"The government should have said that this is a maddeningly
stupid move of Australian Prime Minister John Howard for his own
political interests at the cost of Indonesia," Juwono told The
Jakarta Post.
He noted that Howard was currently using the terrorism issue
to strengthen domestic support for his administration.
He underlined that although it was the right of Canberra to
conduct such a raid to protect its country, it should not offend
Indonesians.
"Australia should have been more sensitive, in times like
this, and Jakarta should have demonstrated a stronger response
against it," Juwono said.
Bilateral relations between Indonesia and Australia have been
moving like a roller-coaster in recent years following
Australia's strong involvement in the separation of East Timor
from Indonesia in 1999.
The relations between the two countries were apparently moving
closer after the Oct. 12 Bali bombing, in which the two countries
grieved together as most of the victims were Australian
holidaymakers.
Strong cooperation in the investigation with generous
assistance from Canberra had helped both countries to put aside
differences.
However, an unprecedented move of Canberra to conduct nation-
wide raids against some Indonesians, allegedly for their
involvement in terrorist activities, soon offended Jakarta.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda had summoned the
representative from the Australian Embassy here twice to express
Indonesia's concern and asked Canberra to give advance notice to
Jakarta each time Indonesian citizens were to be targeted in the
crackdown.
At least six Indonesian families had been raided across
Australia.
About 50 members of Sydney's Indonesian community, some of
whom were targeted in the raids, staged a peaceful protest
outside Prime Minister John Howard's residence in Canberra on
Sunday over what they saw as an assault on their civil liberties.
They moved on after sitting quietly for half an hour, AFP
reported.
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Alexander
Downer spoke with his Indonesian counterpart on Saturday about
the raids by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization
(ASIO) and the federal police.
"I think the Indonesian foreign minister was very clear in his
message," he told ABC radio.
Nevertheless, Downer blamed the Indonesian media for raising
tensions by exaggerating accounts of the antiterrorist crackdown.