I

f only President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was constitutionally eligible for a third term next year, the ongoing diplomatic spat with Australia would have been a blessing in disguise.

The explanation is very simple. The nation is fully united behind him. Even his critics and the opposition have appreciated his '€œretaliatory'€ moves to counter the humiliation of the state'€™s largest symbol, the presidency, by Canberra. Yudhoyono ordered Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa to recall the Indonesian ambassador to Australia, Nadjib Riphat Kesoema, on Tuesday and the next day he suspended bilateral cooperative projects, including operations to curb boat people bound for Australia, joint military exercises and the sharing of intelligence information.

Such speed and decisiveness usually eludes the President, but not this time around. Yudhoyono joined the wave of nationalist sentiment in the face of a neighbor that apparently deems Indonesia a threat rather than a partner. Some have suggested that Indonesia expel the Australian ambassador in Jakarta, but the President does not appear to want to go that far.

Ties between Indonesia and Australia have plunged to a new low, after the media Down Under revealed that a number of prominent figures in Jakarta, including Yudhoyono and his wife, became the targets of Canberra'€™s eavesdropping operations back in 2009.

There have been no details as to why the Defense Signals Directorate (DSD) under the Australian intelligence agency allegedly monitored the cell phone activity of the Indonesian VVIPs. Then law and human rights minister Hamid Awaluddin speculated the surveillance could be related to Indonesia'€™s plan to buy Russian submarines, given that then state enterprises minister Sofyan Djalil and finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who were involved in the submarine procurement talks, were on the list of those wiretapped. Indonesia eventually dropped the bid, citing financial constraints.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who only last month met Yudhoyono in Jakarta for the first time since winning the election and reunited with the Indonesian leader at the East Asia Summit in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, a few days later, fueled more anger for his failure to apologize to Indonesia.

The wildfire of fury swept from the Presidential Palace to the streets, where protesters rallied outside the Australian Embassy in South Jakarta on Thursday to demand the neighboring country'€™s admission of guilt. Pressure is also mounting at home on Abbott to apologize for the sake of the future of bilateral relations.

So far, Abbott and his supporters have not been willing to budge, particularly after Australian media brought up a 2004 interview with former National Intelligence Agency (BIN) head Hendropriyono, who said Indonesia had wiretapped Australian politicians to monitor the development of the Timor Leste issue years earlier.

A former Indonesian military general says Indonesia'€™s anger with Australia is important for upholding ethics in international relations, but the intelligence community will not make a big fuss of the surveillance saga because countries do spy on one another. The scandal, he insists, teaches Indonesia a lesson that its counterintelligence mechanism does not work properly, which is unacceptable because it puts national security at risk. Instead of demanding an apology from Australia , which is unlikely, Indonesia should improve its counterintelligence capability.

Like it or not, the diplomatic tension is a welcome episode for the President and his beleaguered Democratic Party, which is struggling to restore public confidence after a series of corruption cases involving a number of party members have battered its popularity among voters.

It is natural for Yudhoyono as Democratic Party chairman to show anger toward Australia, as it is for other political parties that have been playing the nationalist card to woo voters ahead of the elections. The history of Indonesia-Australia diplomatic ties has seen its ups and downs, however. The two survived one of the worst episodes of their co-existence in 1999, when Australia supported East Timor'€™s independence from Indonesia. Therefore, there should be no question about whether the two neighbors will again move past their differences, although it remains uncertain when.

The feud with Australia did not spoil the historic visit of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to the former colony of his country. During his midweek trip, Rutte was accompanied by representatives of more than 100 Dutch companies, which the prime minister dubbed '€œthe largest ever Dutch trade mission to Indonesia'€.

Of course the mission would not emulate the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC), whose arrival in the 17th century marked the start of hundreds of years of colonization in the archipelago.

After bilateral talks with Yudhoyono on Wednesday, Rutte took a city tour with Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo serving as his guide. Rutte did not give any statement during his brief inspection of Jakarta'€™s flood prevention system, including the future giant seawall project in North Jakarta. Neither did the prime minister pledge assistance to the Jokowi administration.

The city tour was quite special as Rutte was flanked by two potential future Indonesian leaders. Apart from Jokowi, who has consistently been heading popularity polls of potential presidential candidates, Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan, who is taking part in the Democratic Party-administered national convention, accompanied Rutte.