1) Is Marles the right fit for defence?
P&I readers don’t need to be told that Defence Minister Richard Marles is floundering when trying to make security links with Indonesia seem as though they’ve “never been in better shape”.
Relationships could be basking on the sunny side in the interests of regional harmony, though the enthusiasm is partisan. As Professor Tim Lindsey reminded in this newsletter:
“To put it bluntly, Australia struggles to get Indonesia’s attention. It is an uncomfortable truth that… Australia’s leverage and importance is limited. Jakarta sees Canberra as the junior partner in the relationship.”
Readers can measure Lindsey’s academic appraisal against Marles’ bushy-tailed approach when viewing this short clip of his media conference in Jakarta earlier this month.
It appears that little of substance was achieved in the meeting with his Duntroon-trained counterpart, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin.
The Australian’s job is to persuade the Indonesians to settle disputes through wearing out words before loading weapons. It can be a long and boring process but diplomacy can save lives.
The task will be tough because Marles, 57, is not from the warrior class. He was a lawyer and union official before entering Parliament.
Apart from titles, the two men have nothing in common – they can’t even talk cricket (an alien game in the Archipelago) or swill beer together as Muslim Sjafrie is a teetotaller. His ignorance of Australian values was made clear with the gauche gift of an Indonesian 9mm Pindad combat pistol.
Septuagenarian Sjafrie was a career soldier who served in the Kopassus Special Forces unit which has a reputation for ruthlessness. He became a lieutenant-general, a close mate since training days with President Prabowo Subianto who supplied his present job.
In the Indonesian political system, ministers can be hand-picked by the president from outside Parliament.
Prabowo is now replacing civilian functionaries with military men, raising comparisons to the last century doctrine of dwifungsi(dual function) “that allowed the armed forces to crush dissent and dominate public life”.
(Second President Soeharto, a former general and autocrat who ruled Indonesia for 32 years, was Prabowo’s model – and former father-in-law.)
The Indonesian media favours “retired” when referencing Sjafrie’s exit from his 36-year career. However, his Wikipedia entry claims he was “dismissed” from the military over allegations he was involved in the disappearance of 13 Jakarta student democracy activists – a charge he rejects.
His boss, Prabowo, was cashiered for the same 1998 offence and fled to exile in Jordan.
This month the Marles’ message to his homeland stressed geography and strategy to underline our neighbour’s importance; the first is elementary and the second an on-the-fly concept poorly articulated:
“You just need to look at the map to understand how strategically important Indonesia is to Australia, but how strategically important Australia can be to Indonesia. We really can help provide Indonesia with strategic depth.
“We have a security anxiety in relation to China that’s principally driven by the very significant conventional military build-up that China is engaging in… It does shape how we think about the strategic landscape.”
How Indonesia thinks wasn’t addressed. “We” must have referred to Oz and not the Marles-Sjafrie meeting and its unspecified “optimistic and ambitious bilateral agenda”.
Sjafrie was absent from the Marles’ media stand-up, probably fearing he might encounter a probing journo should he venture too close to a mike.
Not to explain the 20 honour ribbons layered down his uniform, including the Star of Peace Veteran awarded this year, but his behaviours while an ambitious young soldier putting down dissidents.
He was in East Timor during the 1991 Santa Cruz Cemetery massacre when at least 280 protesters against Indonesian occupation were shot and hundreds went missing. Sjafrie also served in Aceh and West Papua, fighting Indonesian citizens demanding independence.
When his army ties ended, he became the defence ministry secretary-general. In 2009 he was scheduled to accompany then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on a trip to Pittsburgh for the G-20 summit.
In those days, the US took a moral stand on VIP visitors with suspect histories. It refused Sjafrie a visa, apparently because of alleged links to past atrocities in East Timor and Jakarta which he denies. He’s never faced a court
Marles has no similar reservations, so he has invited Sjafrie to Australia. He also wants Indonesian troops to train in Australia – though no dates have been set.
Whether this would attract Australian protesters concerned about human rights in Indonesia is doubtful. The lobby is overwhelmed with issues from Israel.
It’s small when compared with Aotearoa NZ where former politicians, Pacific Island NGOs, church leaders and academics regularly report alleged atrocities in the Republic – particularly the closed province of West Papua.
However much they may dislike members of other governments for their policies, personalities and actions, most diplomats tend to swallow hard in their dealings with unpalatable foreign leaders.
That’s why the sanctioning of two members of the Israeli Government, Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, is unusual when both nations are allies and democratic.
The far-right politicians’ assets have been frozen and travel bans imposed for reportedly advocating violence. The US is angry, but Oz has support from Canada, the UK and other nations.
Prabowo and Sjafrie won’t get the same treatment — their alleged crimes occurred long ago — and the damage to Australian-Indonesian relations today would be too great for any outbreak of principles.
The days of civilian seventh president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Malcolm Turnbull’s jolly strolls around Sydney in 2017 are legendary.
In those times, relationships really were in better shape.
The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.
Duncan Graham
Duncan Graham has been a journalist for more than 40 years in print, radio and TV. He is the author of People Next Door (UWA Press). He is now writing for the English language media in Indonesia from within Indonesia. Duncan Graham has an MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Java.
What are they hiding?
Your correspondent asks why international news agencies are not allowed into Gaza (Letters, June 16). I ask why West Papua is in a similar situation. If the answer is that foreign journalists can enter under very tight rules, my questions are: Why does Indonesia enforce such restrictions; how are Australian governments involved; and why does all that not constitute a major journalism concern in this region?
Sister Susan Connelly, Croydon
Your correspondent asks why international news agencies are not allowed into Gaza (Letters, June 16). I ask why West Papua is in a similar situation. If the answer is that foreign journalists can enter under very tight rules, my questions are: Why does Indonesia enforce such restrictions; how are Australian governments involved; and why does all that not constitute a major journalism concern in this region?
Sister Susan Connelly, Croydon
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