We've got a problem

Indonesia's official attitude in the wake of the of the Norwegian freighter Tampa episode has been very dismissive. In refusing permission for the ship to offload the Afghan asylum seekers, Jakarta maintained its conviction that this was an Australian problem.

The refugees may have set sail from Indonesia, but when their Indonesian-chartered boat sank and they were rescued by the passing Norwegian ship on its way to Australia, Indonesia feels justified in its claim that the problem was taken out of its hands.

Such a dismissive attitude is consistent with the way Jakarta has turned a blind eye to the influx of people from West Asia -- particularly Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq -- who use Indonesia as a transit point to enter Australia illegally. Little, if at all, has been done to restrict their entry into Indonesia, whether they possess legitimate visas or not. Since Indonesia is not their final destination, the government has very little incentive to prevent them from trying to cross the Indian Ocean to reach what these refugees consider to be the promised land.

With such a dismissive attitude, last week's episode with the Tampa "refugee ship" was treated by Jakarta as nothing more than a diplomatic row with Australia. The planned visit by three Australian cabinet ministers, starting on Thursday, is seen more as an attempt to patch up relations in the aftermath of that row.

But the visit of the Australian foreign minister, defense minister and immigration minister at the same time signifies how serious Australia considers Indonesia's role in containing the arrival of illegal immigrants on its soil. Australia argues that this is not simply about illegal immigrants, which would indeed restrict the problem to Australia alone, but that this is an international people smuggling issue.

Put simply, Australia cannot stop the influx of these asylum seekers without the cooperation of other countries, particularly Indonesia.

Notwithstanding the way Australian Prime Minister John Howard handled the Tampa incident -- he turned it into an election issue by putting the blame largely on Indonesia -- officials in Jakarta would be well advised to change their dismissive attitude and ask themselves: Is this really an Australian problem?

For one thing, Indonesia has already, albeit quietly, taken the brunt of the influx of these West Asians who fail to reach Australian shores. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the government has already had to cope with some 1,600 refugees from West Asia. Presumably, these are people who attempted to sail to Australia but failed and were then returned to Indonesia. Their number may be small, but the government is already heavily burdened by the presence of some 1.3 million refugees or internally displaced people from the conflicts in East Timor, Aceh, Maluku, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

Although United Nations agencies are handling some of these refugees from West Asia, Indonesia still has to provide the accommodation and other facilities for them. These 1,600 people are the only ones who have been discovered. Their number is rising, and will continue rising even faster if Australia succeeds in rejecting more of them.

Besides their staggering number, there is also the potential problem, echoed by the United States, of terrorist syndicates from the Middle East or West Asia infiltrating the influx of asylum seekers. Western and Indonesian intelligence sources have warned about the possibility of foreign terrorist organizations targeting Indonesia.

It is time for Indonesia to recognize that it has a problem, and a potentially large one at that. The dismissive attitude in the past has only led to complacency and inaction.

The government should restrict the issuance of tourist visas to people from West Asia if many of them have abused their entry to Indonesia simply as a means of entering Australia. Immigration officers should tighten procedures for visitors from West Asia, looking out for the possibility of the use of forged passports and visas. The Indonesian Navy could intensify their patrol of the most vulnerable coastal areas if some of these West Asian people illegally enter Indonesia by ship.

Whatever their mode of entry to Indonesia, whether legitimate or not, Indonesia can only start implementing real preventative measures, as well as other measures such as containing the threat of international terrorism, if it recognizes that there is a problem. So far, we have not even reached that point.