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Australia must respect Indonesia’s home affairs: Jokowi
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Respect-- President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said on Thursday that Australia should respect Indonesia's home affairs. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has called on Australia to respect and not interfere with Indonesia’s internal affairs following a report that materials used at a military language training facility in Perth allegedly mocked the state ideology Pancasila.
Several teaching materials used in the curriculum of the language learning camp allegedly discredited the Indonesian Military (TNI) and tweaked Pancasila, which means five principles, to become “Pancagila”, or “five crazy principles” as found by a TNI language trainer teaching at the camp between October and November.
(Read also: TNI temporarily halts cooperation with ADF over insult)
Jokowi said he had received reports from Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu and TNI commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo with regard to the suspension of military cooperation.
“I think that Indonesia and Australia have agreed to respect each other and not interfere in each other’s home affairs. I have instructed the defense minister and the TNI commander to resolve the problems,” Jokowi said.
Jokowi said Indonesia and Australia currently had good bilateral cooperation and the Pancasila incident must be resolved as soon as possible so that the two neighbors’ relationship was not harmed.
On Wednesday, Ryamizard said he would fly to Australia to meet with his counterpart Marise Payne to look for solutions. However, Gatot said on Thursday he would not fly there and demanded Australian representatives come to Indonesia to make an apology.
