Indonesians need to keep cool
- by: Editorial
- From: Herald Sun
- November 20, 2013 12:00AM
PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has moved quickly to reassure Indonesia that information gathering by Australia poses no threat to a country he regards as one of Australia’s closest friends.
His response to mounting Indonesian anger at the monitoring of the phone conversations of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after the 2009 bombings of the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta came at a time when our security agencies were desperately trying to track down the terrorists responsible. Seven people were killed in the blasts, including three Australians.
The Indonesian Government is playing to a domestic audience before elections next year. But an overreaction to the intelligence gathering indulged in by most countries, including Indonesia, risks damaging the unique relationship the two countries enjoy.
It should also be remembered that Australia’s actions took place under Labor when Kevin Rudd was prime minister and it is Mr Abbott who has been left to deal with it.
Mr Abbott has preferred to co-operate with Sri Lanka rather than isolate it following its long civil war and is supported by former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr, who was concerned in office at the number of what he called economic refugees fleeing Sri Lanka to Australia.
The point can also be made that asylum seekers genuinely fearing reprisals in Sri Lanka might consider a short voyage to India rather than a risky passage across thousands of kilometres to Australia.
Mr Abbott has got his feet firmly grounded, if the Labor leadership and the opportunistic Greens and some quarters of the media do not.
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