PM Megawati in joint move against terror
The Age
By LINDSAY MURDOCH
and LOUISE DODSON
JAKARTA
Thursday 7 February 2002
Australia and Indonesia last night vowed to strike an agreement to join forces to help counter the threat of terrorism in the region following a meeting between Prime Minister John Howard and President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Australia also announced that it would provide Indonesia with five police patrol boats to help it break up people-smuggling networks.
After their meeting at the presidential palace, Mr Howard and Mrs Megawati both spoke of building a relationship between the two countries based on "realism and rationalism".
Mr Howard said that although "we are near neighbours, there were areas in which we will not always agree". But he emphasised that Australia strongly supported the territorial integrity and unity of Indonesia, a reference to criticisms from senior Indonesian politicians that Australia supported independence for Papua.
Mr Howard said that Indonesia had proposed a memorandum of understanding between the nations to counter terrorism. This was being worked on by government officials and he hoped it would be signed before he returned to Australia at the end of the week.
In addition, Mr Howard told Mrs Megawati that Australia would provide $1 million in special aid to Indonesia to help Jakarta recover from serious flooding. This is in addition to the $121 million aid Australia provides annually.
Earlier yesterday, Mr Howard was forced to cancel a scheduled visit to Indonesia's parliament this morning after a high-level snub of his visit widened to include the party of Mrs Megawati.
MPs from all of Indonesia's 10 major political parties had expressed opposition to Mr Howard's three-day visit by the time he arrived in Jakarta last night.
The speaker of the lower parliament, Akbar Tanjung, said the political parties would ask Mrs Megawati to explain why she invited Mr Howard to the country.
Mr Tanjung joined Dr Amien Rais, head of the supreme parliament, in cancelling a meeting with Mr Howard.
Dr Rais said Indonesia had not forgiven Australia for many past conflicts, including its policy towards Papua and disagreement over the handling of asylum seekers.
After angrily hitting back at Dr Rais on Tuesday, Mr Howard last night played down the snub, saying it was due to Indonesian domestic politics.
Several leading politicians and Jakarta newspapers have launched scathing attacks on Mr Howard ahead of his second visit to Jakarta in six months.
Roy Janis, the parliamentary head of Mrs Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, said Mr Howard's visit was not "largely welcomed by our party ... Australia has this dualistic approach when it comes to Papua".
Relations were strained last year over the asylum-seeker issue and have not fully recovered from Australia's involvement in East Timor in 1999.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda tried to play down the MPs' boycott, saying it was not the official stance. "Some of the members did raise their concerns, but not all," he told the Jakarta Post.
Dr Rais said he still intended to attend a state banquet in Mr Howard's honour, scheduled for last night. He also admitted there was no hard evidence that Australia supported independence for Papua.
The Media Indonesia newspaper said in an editorial that unlike former prime minister Paul Keating, Mr Howard was temperamental and "likes to make unfriendly and racist" statements.
The newspaper accused Mr Howard of supporting the independence movement in Papua, but gave no evidence. It said Australia was the first country to support independence for East Timor. "For what he has done, Howard should experience the cyclone because he earlier created the wind," the newspaper said.
The Kompas newspaper said that despite efforts to improve relations, "the problem is with Howard's personality and performance, which in the Indonesian perception tends to disturb the state of the relationship".
The English-language Jakarta Post condemned the MPs' refusal to meet Mr Howard.