O

nce again, Australia has disappointed Indonesia. The low standard of Australia'€™s diplomatic conduct has produced a loss in its integrity and credibility. Last year I mapped out in this column Indonesia'€™s deep displeasure over the manner in which the Australian prime minister had handled, or rather mishandled, the relationship between our two countries.

Consider what has happened just recently. There are reports of a disgraceful A$30,000 cash bribe paid to return a boat full of desperate people asking for Australia'€™s help to Indonesian waters.

And in May 2014, Australian media reported that the Australian navy had loaded two Albanians and one Indonesian onto a boat before returning it back to a remote island off eastern Indonesia.

This dirty, sinful and inhumane behavior is almost unbelievable, and it has been exercised in the name of Australia'€™s immigration policy. It'€™s not just Stop the Boats, but Kick Back the Boats, Load On Extra Passengers and Let the Boats Sink that truly characterizes Australia'€™s immigration policy.

'€œOne of the main effects of the turn-back policy has been a shifting of Australian responsibilities to other countries, a greater burden to Indonesia and a rejection of Australia'€™s obligation under international refugee law,'€ says  Andreas Schloenhardt, a professor of criminal law at Queensland University and head of Migrant Smuggling Working Group, Australia.

This statement, though eminently sensible, is not enough to make Abbott listen.

Australia has gone so far as to recruit double agents and informants, like former Iraqi soldier Waleed Sultani, to infiltrate cross-border smuggling operations. Australian journalist Mark Hutton has reported that a comrade of Sultani, one Hasan Ayoub, a former smuggler, received A$250,000, Australian citizenship and indemnity from prosecution if he agreed to help Australia crack-down on smuggling operations and assist them in turning back boats.

These dirty tricks are modus operandi for Australians in executing their foreign and immigration policy. Turning back boats and bribing smugglers to do so put the lives of women and children at risk. Bringing this problem to Indonesia is absolutely irresponsible and morally contemptible.

Indonesia should not expect honest answers to be given by the Australians. Only denial, silence and mischief should be expected. These are the ways and methods of Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his foreign minister, Julie Bishop. This is how they manage friendship. By tapping phones and threatening to cut aid unless their drug traffickers are released from prison.

In dealing with the Australian government, we should expect that they will make the worst political choice available to them.

Again and again, Australian diplomacy has failed to understand how to properly deal with Indonesia. Can the Australian government possibly justify paying smugglers to turn back boats to Indonesia?

The answer is a very clear no. Indeed, the majority of the Australian public, 71 percent, say no. Their government, however, says yes, and continues to try and justify this brutal policy.

To where will Tony Abbott bring Australia-Indonesia relations? Abbott will bring the relationship to its lowest depths, not only by creating an atmosphere of miscommunication and miscalculation at the highest levels of government, but also by pouring gas on a burning fire at the grass-roots level of people-to-people contact.

Repairing the damage now hinges on Abbott. But Abbott is a leader who simply does not want to listen and refuses to be blamed for anything. The opposition Labour party and academics, as well as a sizable portion of his constituents, are all waiting for Abbott to make decisive changes and to answer for his
mistakes.

Now his quality of state craftsmanship is truly being tested in front of the Australian and Indonesian public. The test involves rebuilding the relationship and trying to solve the day-to-day problems that confound Australia and Indonesia.
___________________________

The writer graduated from the University of Indonesia and is now deputy Chief of mission at the Indonesia Embassy in Beijing. The views expressed are his own.