PM minister never expected Megawati at Bali memorial
PM minister never expected Megawati at Bali memorial
Agencies, Sydney, Australia
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Friday he never
expected Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri to attend
this weekend's anniversary commemorations for the Bali nightclub
bombings.
Leading up to Sunday's anniversary of the attacks that killed
202 people there were reports that Megawati would not attend out
of respect for the tropical island's mostly Hindu population.
"There are complex cultural reasons, which I fully
understand," he told Sydney radio station 2SM. "I don't read
anything into it."
The Indonesian government confirmed earlier this week that
Megawati would not attend, but said it was because of a prior
engagement with the president of Algeria.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer insisted her absence was not
a sleight on Australia.
"Different cultures deal with these commemorations in
different ways - we in the way that we all understand and I don't
think President Megawati necessarily wants to deal with it in the
same way," Downer told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television
late on Thursday.
Howard said he was not concerned for his safety when he
travels to Bali to attend the memorial services.
"You've got to take risks and I certainly am not concerned
about my safety," he said. "I don't think it's in any way broken
our spirit or affected us in a long term way. We'll still travel,
we'll still seek out adventure, we'll still see our young going
abroad."
Howard also said on Friday he would simply ignore a series of
barbs about Australia from his Malaysian counterpart Mahathir
Mohamad, saying the veteran leader personally had a long-standing
problem with Canberra.
At a regional conference in Bali this week, Mahathir slammed
Australia as "some sort of transplant from another region" and
accused Canberra of wanting to be the regional "deputy sheriff"
to Washington.
"I've long since given up dignifying his comments with a
response," Howard said on national radio. "I'm not the only prime
minister who had a run-in with Dr Mahathir.
"It's better to let it just slide away because he's now
retiring. Sometimes it's more evocative, and it's more eloquently
expressive of how you feel, by ignoring something, than to get
into a detailed rebuttal."
Howard said relations with the Malaysian people remained
strong, and pointed out that 200,000 Malaysians had been through
Australian universities.