Meeting of minds in Tokyo

Meeting of minds in Tokyo

While in Tokyo to attend the funeral of the late Japanese
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, one of President Abdurrahman Wahid's
main agenda items will be to patch up Indonesia's relations with
Australia -- again, because patching up strained relations with
Australia has become something of a routine job that every
Indonesian president since the 1950s has had to perform.

The importance of maintaining good relations -- or at least a
workable relationship -- between Indonesia and Australia has been
commented on every so often in this column. Indonesia is the
biggest and the most populous country in the region -- apart from
being the fourth most populous in the world -- and, despite its
present condition, has every potential of playing a key role in
the region.

Australia, on the other hand, is an advanced industrial
country with scientific and technological advantages that could
greatly benefit other countries in the Asian and Pacific regions
-- a representative of the modern Western world on the region's
doorstep, as it were. Good relations between the two countries
would therefore be greatly beneficial to the entire region.

Hence, there is nothing strange or unusual in President
Abdurrahman meeting with Australia's Prime Minister John Howard
to discuss Jakarta's ties with Canberra, which suffered yet
another setback during the East Timor crisis last year. And since
there are no fundamental differences whatsoever between the two
governments with regard to East Timor, there is no reason to
expect that hitches will occur.

In the meantime, however, a shadow of renewed discord between
the two nations is already looming, which, unless tackled with
wisdom and good sense, could lead to another crisis in
Australian-Indonesian relations. This concerns reports that
Australians were attending the recently concluded Papua People's
Congress in Jayapura. President Abdurrahman has made it clear
that he would ask his Australian counterpart to "handle" whatever
problems might arise from the presence of Australian non-
governmental organizations at the Papua conference -- if indeed
there were.

Whatever his shortcomings, we believe President Abdurrahman is
well enough equipped to handle this particular problem. In the
short period that he has been in power, President Abdurrahman has
shown an unfailing commitment to the establishment of justice,
human rights and democracy, which, after all is what the Papua
problem is all about.

In all this it is heartening, meanwhile, to observe that, for
once, most Indonesians seem to be reacting with a rather
surprising degree of rationality to the Papua People's Congress,
including the reported presence of Australians at the congress.
The congress itself, including its demand for independence, has
hardly caused a stir in Jakarta. The president has not only kept
the military from over-reacting, he has allowed the Papuans to
raise their Morning Star flag, albeit on certain conditions.

Indonesians, it seems, are confident that they have little to
fear from the Papuans as long as they keep their promise of
giving the people the justice they have long been clamoring for
by granting them regional autonomy. Irian Jaya, or Papua, differs
from East Timor in that it is recognized by the United Nations as
having become a part of Indonesia through a UN-approved "act of
self-determination" in 1963. For now, at least, Indonesians seem
to be confident enough that they will be able to maintain their
unitary state.

It is also well to keep in mind that it is in the interest not
only of Indonesia, but for the stability of the entire Asia-
Pacific region to keep this country from becoming Balkanized. For
Indonesians, this means that it is their responsibility, and
theirs alone, to administer their country with justice, wisdom
and skill so that peace and contentment can prevail. This,
unfortunately, is easier said than done, but there is no other
way the country can be kept intact and the people contented.