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Australia cannot respond meekly to Indonesian executions
News.com.au - April 30, 2015
Many of these men, including former president General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, return home to distinguished military and political careers. They become the custodians of Indonesia's inhumane capital punishment laws.
Human rights and the rule of law are key aspects of the Australian training courses, but given the record of the military and brutal units such as Kopassus special-forces, many of the messages fall on deaf ears.
During the past half century Indonesia's Javanese dominated military force, known as TNI, has only been used to kill its own citizens in places such as West Papua, East Timor and Ambon. It has been a brutal and uncompromising domestic security force.
Strong friendships have been forged between Australian and Indonesian officers who have joined each other in their homes, on golf courses in both countries or in Jakarta's famous karaoke bars.
Senior Australian officers sing the praises and the importance of relationships established during the courses, but when true friendship is required – such as during the "cruel and unnecessary" Chan/Sukamaran execution crisis – they apparently count for little.
In addition to the training places, Indonesian troops last year participated in 11 multilateral exercises with Australian military forces.
Dozens of senior Indonesian police also attend training courses in Australia and the bonds between counterterrorism officers in both nations have also become very close. At present there are 23 Indonesian officers training at Australian military academies and universities.
During the past year more than 150 places were offered to Indonesian military personnel and 70 were taken up at a cost to Australia of $2.5 million.
The funds come from the Defence Cooperation Program that last year devoted $3.7 million to Indonesia. That is the highest figure for all South-East Asian countries from a total budget of $17 million.
This money is on top of the annual $600 million in foreign aid that taxpayers devote to Indonesia in areas such as health, education and governance. And then there is the $1 billion Australian dollars provided in assistance following the Asian Financial Crisis and another billion in the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami.
Australia has rightly been a very good friend of Indonesia through thick and thin. It is now time to take stock.
We cannot afford to over react and hurt the people we are trying to help but equally we cannot be seen to be a meek diplomatic pushover. We must do more than just recall our ambassador and cease ministerial contact.
These gestures may be unprecedented but they will be seen as timid by many Australians and most Indonesians.
We don't want to go to war over a single act of barbarity sanctioned by a weak, compromised president Joko Widodo, but our response must reflect the anger of millions of Australians who are dismayed by the brutal torture and state sanctioned murder of two Australian citizens in a foreign field.
There needs to be a tough, tangible and visible response otherwise Australia will be seen as weak and that could have far greater ramifications down the track.
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