President SBY, now in his ninth year as the democratically elected president of the Indonesian republic, must have had a quiet smile to himself on Monday when he met with Tony Abbott, Australia's latest prime minister, the fifth since he took office. The scene had a touch about it of the Queen in Helen Mirren's movie of that name telling the young Tony Blair 'you are my tenth prime minister'.
Though Abbott wants us to think he is pioneering something novel, the visit also had a touch about it of the ingratiating Soeharto days when Paul Keating made Jakarta his first overseas port of call.
The President, who has gone out of his way to befriend Australia and has no intention of spoiling that legacy in his last year in office, accommodated Abbott. He did not repeat his Foreign Minister's rejection of Abbott's tow back the boats policy. And the two leaders agreed that the trafficking of asylum seekers by boat to Australia was a problem for both Australia and Indonesia and that beating the practice will require more work both bilaterally and through the multi-lateral Bali process.
Abbott, for his part, reaffirmed Canberra's 'total respect for Indonesia's sovereignty and territorial integrity'. This is code for saying that Australia rejects any talk of secession in West Papua, an issue that was also discussed. The pledge also implies that Australia will not unilaterally tow boats back to Indonesia without Indonesia's cooperation. But judging by the hostile reception the idea has so far received from Indonesian MPs and others, that cooperation is not likely.
Observing the Indonesian coverage of the visit, I was bothered by three things.
First, thanks to the way the issue has been presented by Australia, Indonesian public reaction has been defensive. Indonesians feel that Australia is blaming them for the flow of boats. They feel that proposals to pay for intelligence, to buy boats so they cannot be used by people smugglers and so on are 'unilateral' (i.e. pushy) and pongah (conceited) and suggest that Australia has to step in because Indonesia is not doing its job. They also think it's unfair for affluent Australia to force boat people back to Indonesia which already has plenty of problems. One letter writer even suggested Indonesia will have to set an island aside to accommodate the influx of returnees.
The issue is not high on Indonesia's agenda and a good outcome of the Abbott visit has been to highlight the matter more sharply here. It's also true that Indonesia could do much more. Its successful containment of terrorism, done in concert with Australia, shows that it could break up the organised crime rings that profit from the people smuggling trade. Perceptions of being dictated to, however, will only generate push back when consultation and collaboration are needed. Canberra could learn from Australia's enviable record of partnering Indonesia constructively in community development.
Second, the issue is being misrepresented in Indonesia. Reporting on the Abbott visit, the Indonesian media have repeatedly described asylum seekers as illegal immigrants using the Indonesian term imigran gelap. Gelap means dark and suggests activity that is shadowy and suspicious. The Abbott Government uses similar language and is happy to see the issue defined this way. It allows a humanitarian and human rights issue to be reduced to one of criminality, justifies tough action and absolves one of a duty of care for those legitimately seeking sanctuary.
Indonesia is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention. Refugees in Indonesia cannot legally work, move around freely or educate their children. A report on the issue by Human Rights Watch in June this year was entitled 'Barely Surviving'. It details detention, poor treatment, abuse and exploitation of refugees in Indonesia.
Lastly, I suspect that the Prime Minister's visit has left Indonesians with a poor impression of Australia. Dewi Fortuna Anwar, political adviser to Indonesia's Vice President Boediono, described the Abbott policy as 'callous' and asked where was the humanitarian dimension in all this. Educated in Australia like Boediono, she expects better. Abbott's heavy handedness also contrasts sharply with the sensitive way Jakarta's popular governor, Jokowi, is managing complex change, for which Indonesians feel genuine enthusiasm.
The business and boats orientation of the visit has left the impression that an Abbott led Australia sees the national interest principally in narrow, if not selfish, economic terms. It would have helped if, in addition to the boat issue, Australia's relatively generous formal immigration and refugee intake policy had also been highlighted during the PM's visit. Maybe next time Abbott might include not just business leaders in his delegation but some of Australia's respected migrant and humanitarian leaders who can explain to Indonesians that there is more to Australia than they saw this time.
In the meantime, Indonesians will be clear about two things: that Australia is open for business, as Abbott declared on election night, but closed tight to desperate boat people fleeing war and persecution.
Pat Walsh is currently visiting Indonesia. Inside Indonesia magazine, which he co-founded in 1983, will celebrate its 30th anniversary this November.