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Issue of the day: Flipping over the boats: Restoring RI-Oz ties

Feb

The Jakarta Post
Sat, February 22, 2014

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Issue of the day: Flipping over the boats: Restoring RI-Oz ties

F

strong>Feb. 18, p7

Australian warships will now be frequenting Indonesian waters. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s diplomatic legacy is now vividly clear: A tradition of diplomatic spinelessness and an Australian bully to the south well intent on trampling over Indonesian sovereignty. Although Sukarno was the one who coined the pejorative phrase, '€œa nation of coolies and a coolie among nations'€, it was obviously Yudhoyono who managed to craft that catchphrase into a diplomatic reality for Indonesians today. (By Pierre Marthinus, Jakarta)

Your comments:


The true voice of Indonesia has been revealed. In this coming election I will choose a presidential candidate who is a strong and decisive leader with the promise to restore national dignity.  I don'€™t expect that President Yudhoyono will take any brave step against Australia, but I hope the next president will.

Australia has taken too much of our focus. They give us bad publicity and destroy our good image that we had slowly started to rebuild since we came out from our dark period. The next Indonesian leader should take decisive action against Australia

First our government should stop receiving any aid from Australia, as our founding father Sukarno said, '€œgo to hell with your aid!'€ All Indonesians always remember proudly that their leader, representing the wish of the people, bravely said to the bullying country that we would not trade our pride and dignity for its dollar.

Instead of taking aid from Australia, the government should create a national movement to make Indonesian people pay tax because out of almost 250 million Indonesians, last year only around 9 million people paid tax, out of five million registered companies/enterprises only 520,000 paid tax. The government should make radical changes to this.

Second, our government should start cutting imports of beef from Australia, let the price go up and force our people to grow our own cattle to meet the demand. For too long cheap beef from Australia has ruined our local beef market.

Gatot Santo Wibowo

By all means cut all forms of cooperation and trade with Australia to clear the air.  As far as trade is concerned, RI might then be in the position of contravening trade agreements. It might also be possible that some form of cooperation with Australia might actually benefit RI more than Australia.  Counterterrorism is one because this ensures the success of tourism in RI.

It, however, needs to be made clear, Australia will go to any lengths to stop boat arrivals. It'€™s not a matter of arrogance but of national survival. Australia can survive well without having anything to do with RI but it won'€™t survive with unlimited boat arrivals.

Jagera

At first glance this article quoting Sukarno'€™s speech is interesting, but the next paragraphs are just annoying to read. Nobody in the so-called Indonesian '€œmiddle class'€ wants to harm relationships with Australia. Maybe the Abbot government is taking a hard approach to Indonesia, but people-to-people relationship should not be dragged down. If Indonesians want beef from Australia, let them have it. If Aussies want to go sunbathing in Bali, let them go.

Berniex

It is the ravings of someone who has been bullied as a child. Most of the current problems are not the fault of Tony Abbott, they actually took place while Labor was in power. The spying on the President was during the reign of Kevin Rudd. The beef incident was during the reign of Julia Gillard. Your facts are wrong.

There are mixed messages floating around at the present. Most of the rhetoric from the Indonesian side is all about positioning for the pending election and is aimed at the domestic market and not really at Australia. It is hard to work out the actual mood of the Indonesian politicians. After the election you will see a dramatic change in the cooperation with Abbott.

Peter

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