Indo-Oz treaty. Pandering to Prabowo, ignoring unrest, West Papua

While Indonesians worry about President Prabowo’s undemocratic moves, the failures of his flagship ‘breakfast’ policy and the faltering economy, Australia is entering into another ‘deal’ of little consequence. Duncan Graham reports.

Indonesia, which is not covered enough in the Australian media, has been plagued with protests this year. severe. Disastrous release of President Prabowo following protests that included complaints about national budget cuts and a new proposed law expanding the military’s role in political affairs school meal programand politicians get this reward $3,000 housing assistance.

Prabowo supports pet milk project… but wait, Indonesians are lactose intolerant

Recently, anger against the president has been further fueled by his moves to install corrupt former dictator Soeharto (also Prabovo’s former father-in-law) as a leader. national hero.

Prabowo walks alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese aboard the 27,500-tonne HMAS Canberra, the flagship of the Royal Australian Navy, ignoring both his current travails and his historical record of human rights abuses (which led to his exile from Indonesia for years).

The venue was multi-purpose: it showcased our Navy hardware and reinforced the signing of a tenuous ‘heightened security agreement’ among unequals. Australia’s landmass is four times larger, but there are eleven Indonesians for every Australian.

ignoring the past

Although Canberra’s flight deck was designed for helicopters, the crew found a table where leaders could lean against while writing their names. This position also served to prevent disrespectful Australian journalists from asking questions about Prabowo’s past; It’s a topic his Jakarta colleagues rarely raise for fear of being banned.

Compare this one day run With a relaxed three-day visit by Jokowi and his wife Iriana in 2018, when Malcolm Turnbull was Prime Minister. Two men strolled through Botanical GArdens and seemed to be enjoying the environment. The president was swarmed by Indonesian fans.

This month Prabowo and Albanese smiled for the few cameras allowed, but there was no sense that it was a fair dinkum. Indonesia in question the trip was “also a sort of response to Prime Minister Albanese’s trip to Jakarta last May,” another daily back-and-forth chore.

Analyzing the agreement requires mental athleticism and linguistic dexterity because the Republic likes to call itself part of the ‘non-aligned movement’, meaning it does not align itself with any other world power.

This policy was developed in the 1940s after the new nation freed itself from the colonial Netherlands and rejected US and Russian suitors.

It has become a cliché; ‘sailing between two reefs’ and ‘friend to all, enemy to none’. Two years ago former Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi explained:

“Indonesia refuses to see the Indo-Pacific fall victim to geopolitical conflict. …This is where Indonesia’s independent and active foreign policy becomes important. For almost eighty years, these principles have been a compass in Indonesia’s interaction with other countries.

“…(this) independent and active foreign policy is not a neutral policy; it is a policy that does not make alliances with superpowers and does not bind the country to any military agreements.”

When is a treaty not a treaty? Marles and Prabowo Canberra’s love.

Pact or agreement?

Is ‘treaty’ an ‘agreement’? For most of us these terms are synonymous; According to word distortion surveys, these are whatever the user wants them to mean.

We don’t know new ‘security deal’ details despite ABC speculation This meant that “leadership and ministerial consultations will be held on matters of common security, that cooperation will be enhanced and consulted in the event of threats, and that individual or joint measures will be considered” and that “information will be shared on matters that may be important to the security of Australia and vice versa”.

‘The bulk of the analysis’ came from Foreign Secretary Penny Wong’s report. media statementSo there is no explanation here.

What does it really mean? Not much from a close reading of Albanese translation:“If the security of one or both countries is threatened,

to consult and evaluate what measures can be taken, individually or jointly, to deal with these threats.

Careful readers will notice the elastic phrase “consult and consider.” If this were a highway sign warning of dangers ahead, few people would stop pushing the pedal.

Where does the threat come from? In the minds of the hard right, this would be China, the country that both Indonesia and Australia rely on for trade.

The last ‘security agreement’ was signed between Prime Minister Paul Keating and Soeharto in 1995. document is “closely modeled” on the old agreement.

The Keating doc was scrapped when Indonesian troops invaded East Timor in 1998 and Australia sided with the tiny state and its independence fighters.

If we knew what was happening in the mountains and forests next to us, would we do the same for the guerrillas in West Papua? We don’t because the state is closed to journals and both governments are apparently comfortable with secrecy. The real protests come from: NGOs, especially those in New Zealand.

FM Wong added that “the Treaty will reflect the close friendship, partnership and deep trust between Australia and Indonesia.”

I’m sorry, Senator, this is fiction. Another weird fact: Indonesians and Australians insecurity with each other, according to surveys conducted by the Lowy Institute. “For 19 years, attitudes towards Indonesia have been lukewarm at best.

And worst of all, they betray a lurking suspicion.

These feelings will continue until we become serious about telling our own stories and listening to theirs, where each party continually strives to understand and respect the other. ‘Security agreements’ involving guns, destruction and murder are not the best foundations of friendship between neighbours.

Future documents must be signed in the Domain.

The right moves to the right in Indonesia as President Prabowo channels Donald Trump