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Commentary: Saving face, RI-Oz mend rift to face new challenges
In the end someone got what they needed, even though it wasnât what they fully wanted
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n the end someone got what they needed, even though it wasn't what they fully wanted. While the other got everything they wanted without compromising on what they really needed.
The end of the espionage affair between Jakarta and Canberra faded into the background of Indonesian politics on Thursday, when Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop signed in Bali a code of conduct on espionage as part of the framework of security cooperation under the Lombok Treaty.
It was in stark contrast to its outbreak in November, which saw strong words from the State Palace, mass demonstrations in front of the Australian Embassy and the recalling of the Indonesian ambassador to Australia. The controversy was sparked by leaked cables in the media that Australian intelligence had tapped the conversations of the President's inner circle, including his wife.
The code of conduct signed in Bali presents little new other than to smooth over a political rift without really reducing suspicions or even furthering the trust between the two neighbors.
In January, Marty said the improvement in relations was a process 'and not simply about pushing forward a signed document in black and white'.
'In my opinion, what's more important is the process of rebuilding trust,' he said at the time.
It is hard to see how this tersely worded document and the preceding talks will satisfy the trust-building aspect when Canberra continues to neither confirm nor deny its spying activities and Prime Minister Tony Abbott himself saying last year that Australia 'should not be expected to apologize for [...] reasonable intelligence-gathering activities'.
Yet this agreement is a conclusion, even though not a solution, needed at this key juncture of the bilateral relationship.
Yudhoyono really wanted something more. A personal approach would have sufficed. In its place he has to be happy with a document that will be spun as an acknowledgement of past events and a guarantee of future security.
A 'sorry' without an apology. It saved face for Yudhoyono, and lent respect to the Indonesian presidency.
The signing comes at an important final stretch of the Yudhoyono presidency. In 53 days Indonesia will have a new president. The state of Indonesia-Australia relations left to the Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo presidency is a legacy that the new administration could not have changed immediately.
The code of conduct leaves diplomacy in the new administration on a better footing.
That at least is one positive inheritance Yudhoyono will leave his successor. Jokowi will be able to go to Brisbane, Australia, for the G-20 Summit on Nov. 15 without the baggage of the past year's row.
Australia, too, needed Indonesia to move on from this personal affront. It has bigger issues to tackle and more recent potentially dangerous threats in which it needs the cooperation of its northern giant.
The fact that it did so without making a formal apology and no direct pledge to never conduct intelligence operations on Indonesia suits Canberra all the more.
The exact phrasing of the code of conduct simply says that Indonesia and Australia will not use their intelligence and surveillance capacities 'in ways that would harm the interests' of each other.
Australia needs Indonesia's support in its tough 'stop the boats' policy under Abbott. Without repairing this diplomatic row, the collision of interests and the towing of illegal refugee boats to near Indonesian waters would only heat up the situation further.
Even more urgently, cooperation between intelligence agencies in both countries are needed as the threat of terror from the Islamic State (IS) organization becomes more ominous.
Scores of Indonesians are believed to have joined the ranks of the organization to fight in the Middle East and even Australia has revealed that some of its citizens have become volunteers of what has been described as an al-Qaeda derivative.
As many as 60 Australians have reportedly traveled to Iraq to join in the fighting there.
David Irvine, director-general of security for the Australian government, said recently he believed that '15 Australians have already been killed in the current conflicts, including two young Australian suicide bombers'.
Ultimately, while the code of conduct does not represent a leap forward in the prickly relations of the two countries, it thankfully does not represent a step backward.
