PM furious at snub by Indonesian kingmaker
By Lindsay Murdoch in Jakarta and Michelle Grattan in Singapore
One of Indonesia's most powerful politicians enraged John Howard last night when he cancelled a meeting with the Prime Minister just hours before he was due to arrive in Jakarta.
Amien Rais, the Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, said Indonesia had not forgiven Australia for many past conflicts, especially disagreement over the handling of asylum seekers.
"We were considered as a country that pretends not to know anything about people smuggling activity," he said. "That's just too much, because it's impossible that our Government is involved in such activity."
He also warned Australia not to support independence for the province of Papua, formerly Irian Jaya, and called on Mr Howard to make a clear declaration of support for Indonesia's territorial integrity.
In Singapore, the Prime Minister immediately hit back at Dr Rais's claims, saying they were "totally untrue".
In a toughly worded written statement, he said the Australian Government "had never accused the Indonesian Government of being responsible for the illegal trafficking of people".
He also said it was "categorically untrue that we are supporting the independence of Papua".
"The Australian Government unequivocally supports the territorial integrity of Indonesia," he said.
Mr Howard said he was "disappointed" at the Speaker's decision - and suggested he had played fast and loose with the reasons given for the cancellation.
"The appointment with the Speaker had been scheduled for some time, and had been proposed by the Indonesian Government as part of the standard format for official visits.
"In fact, when he indicated his unavailability earlier today he gave as the reason his preoccupation with the current flood situation."
Australian sources last night also expressed doubts over Mr Howard's meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Akbar Tandjung, saying they were uncertain about whether this meeting, too, might fall over. Asked whether he would meet Mr Howard, Mr Tandjung told the Herald he would first consult other MPs.
The shock cancellation of the Rais meeting makes more difficult a visit in which the Prime Minister was already going to be treading on diplomatic eggshells.
The Australian Government is determined that people smuggling needs to be a central item on the agenda but the Indonesians have been loath to do other than brush over it during the coming talks between Mr Howard and the Indonesian President, Megawati Sukarnoputri.
The Indonesian Ambassador to Australia, Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat, reiterated this week that from the start Jakarta's view was that the issue of illegal migrants "is an international issue".
"Of course, if Prime Minister Howard would wish to touch upon the issue then of course Indonesia would be willing to discuss [it] in a kind of broad terms."
The formal rebuttal of Dr Rais's claims is a highly unusual move on the eve of such a delicate visit. Before the Speaker's allegations, Mr Howard said of Mrs Megawati: "It's difficult times for the Indonesian President with the very bad floods but both of us are keen at this stage that the visit should go ahead and I'm looking forward very much to being there."