AUSTRALIAN ASYLUM GRANT TO PAPUANS SPARKS SHARP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 004464

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/11/2014
TAGS: PREL PGOV PREF PHUM AS ID
SUBJECT: AUSTRALIAN ASYLUM GRANT TO PAPUANS SPARKS SHARP
WORDS AND CRUDE CARTOONS

REF: CANBERRA 455

JAKARTA 00004464 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: Political Officer John Rath. Reason: 1.4 (d).


1. (C) Summary: The Australian Government's March 23
decision to grant three-year "protection visas" to 42
Indonesian nationals from troubled Papua province has
provoked condemnation from the GOI and the Indonesian public.
The GOI recalled its ambassador from Canberra, postponed a
bilateral cooperation project, and began revisiting other
assistance agreements. Indonesian President Yudhoyono has
spoken publicly against the GOA's decision to grant asylum,
but he has not stoked public anger. Indonesian politicians
and public figures have denounced the Australian action,
warning that it may signal active Australian support for the
Papuan separatist movement and invoking memories of
Australia's role in facilitating East Timor independence.
The Papuan asylum flap spawned a pair of dueling Indonesian
and Australian cartoons, each depicting the other's leader in
a vulgar sexual position. Indonesian-Australian ties have
long been prone to stress and strain: media windbags and
nationalistic demagogues will likely keep the Papuan asylum
issue alive for some time longer, particularly if unconfirmed
media reports of additional Papuan asylum-seekers in
Australia prove accurate. End Summary.

Sharp and Sometimes Shrill Indonesian Reaction
-------------- -


2. (C) The GOI reacted sharply to the Papuan visa issuance by
recalling its ambassador from Canberra and stating publicly
that it would review all aspects of Indonesian-Australian
relations. Last week, the GOI abruptly postponed a signing
ceremony of a bilateral MOU for a USD 10 million Australian
project to fight avian influenza, and Australian Embassy
officials here told us they expect similar postponements of
other assistance projects in the coming days. Visits to
Australia by high-level GOI officials have also been put on
ice to register Indonesian pique, and GOI representatives
were noticeably absent from a memorial ceremony held to honor
Australian military crew who died last year in a helicopter
crash while aiding Indonesian earthquake victims in Sumatra.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) has
expressed public disappointment over the visa issuance and
questioned the degree of Australian respect for Indonesia's
sovereignty and territorial integrity, stating that the GOI
would not tolerate separatists or those who support them.


3. (C) SBY also said publicly that bilateral differences
should be handled through discussion and dialogue, a pointed
rejoinder to demands from agitated Indonesian politicians and
some public elements for a severance of diplomatic relations.
Australian Embassy Political Counselor Justin Lee told us
SBY had assured the Australians that while he wants to
"manage" Indonesian reaction to the Papuan asylum issues, he
must also make some concessions to placate public anger.
Although SBY maintains that he wants no long-term damage to
Indonesian-Australian ties, Lee opined that the Papua issue
is an emotional one for Yudhoyono due to his background in
the Indonesian Armed Forces and its overriding ethos of
national and territorial unity.


4. (U) On April 5, SBY visited Merauke in Papua, the far
southeastern corner of the nation and part of the famous
"Sabang to Merauke" nationalist jingo (the rough equivalent
to our "sea to shining sea" verse),an important symbol of
Indonesia's pan-archipelagic territorial integrity.
According to media reports, SBY took the occasion to warn
against foreign interference, stating "the problems in Papua
are a domestic affair. We don't want any foreign party to
meddle in domestic issues." SBY characterized Australia's
decision on the 42 Papuans as "incorrect, unrealistic and
unilateral."

East Timor Replay?
--------------


5. (C) The Papuan asylum issue has drawn criticism from all
quarters of the Indonesian body politic. Parliamentarians
from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI-P) have been particularly vocal in their denunciation of
Australian actions and of SBY's alleged diffident handling of
the matter. For instance, Megawati Sukarnoputri's former
spokesman and current legislator Sutradara Ginting claimed
that Australia's unilateral decision underscored contempt for

JAKARTA 00004464 002.2 OF 003


Indonesian sovereignty and a lack of personal respect for
Yudhoyono, who had previously sought to personalize improved
Indonesian-Australian ties through high-profile interaction
with Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Ginting and
other legislators invoked memories of Australia's role in
East Timor's independence from Indonesia and warned that the
Australian visa issuance matter may be a prelude to similar
intervention on behalf of Papuan separatists. The
legislature's Foreign Affairs Committee invited Australian
diplomats to clarify the Papuan asylum case, a meeting
Australian Political Counselor Lee termed "difficult". Lee
said that he explained that Australian asylum law is based
on international conventions, but that the Indonesian
legislators nonetheless urged the Australians to change their
law.


6. (C) Lee went on to acknowledge that an additional reason
for Indonesian suspicion of Australian motives is the
presence of Papuan NGOs in Australia. Lee did not rule out
the possibility that the arrival of Papuan refugees was a
stunt to grab attention for the cause of Papuan independence,
noting that their boat was flying the separatist "Morning
Star" flag and that NGOs seemed to have advance knowledge of
their arrival.

Crude Caricatures Caught in Carnal Knowledge
--------------


7. (SBU) The most bizarre aspect of the Papuan asylum
fall-out has been a pair of dueling cartoons published in
Indonesian and Australian newspapers that have contributed to
bilateral tension. Jakarta-based daily "Rakyat Merdeka"
started the cartoon tiff March 28 with a lurid front-page
cartoon under the title "The Adventure of Two Dingo" (sic)
that depicted the likenesses of Prime Minister Howard and
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as a bespectacled pair of
copulating wild dogs. An Australian flag dangled from the
extended tail of the Howard dingo with a dialogue box that
reads "I want Papua!! Alex, try to make a play for it!"


8. (SBU) Not to be outdone, Australian newspaper "The
Australian" responded several days later with a crude cartoon
of its own. Bearing the title "No Offence Intended," the
cartoon showed a grinning and fez-hatted likeness of
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) engaged
in non-consensual carnal knowledge with the likeness of a
visibly distraught Papuan male wearing a bone through his
nose, and a dialogue box that has the SBY character saying
"Don't take this the wrong way." Both SBY and Howard have
criticized the vulgar nature of the cartoons, though
Yudhoyono watered down his remarks by opining that the "Two
Dingo" artist was likely driven by wounded feelings of
national pride, and Howard reportedly went out of his way to
defend press freedom. Anecdotal soundings among ordinary
Indonesians reveals that many distinguish between the level
of vulgarity represented by the two cartoons and somehow find
the Australian cartoon to be more offensive because, as we
have been informed, Indonesians expect a higher level of
conduct from Australians than themselves and "The Australian"
is a more serious newspaper than a sensationalist rag like
"Rakyat Merdeka."

Comment
--------------


9. (C) Beyond the bluff and chummy character of previous
SBY-Howard meetings and their photo op declarations of a new
era in Indonesian-Australian relations, the Papuan visa flap
and attendant dueling cartoons point up an awkward and often
strained bilateral relationship. According to a common
Indonesian public perception, bilateral ties are complicated
by Australian fear of its poor but gargantuan neighbor and
tinged with an Australian lack of respect/sense of
superiority that is often perceived to have racist overtones,
though that perception may change due to the large and
growing number of Indonesians who study in Australia. The
uproar over the Papuan asylum grant and the cartoons is in
some ways reminiscent of the hubbub that surrounded recent
high-profile drug smuggling prosecutions of Australian
defendants in Bali which often seemed more in line with
athletic contests between bitter rivals than with courtroom
trials, complete with boorish media blowhards from each
country accusing the other in print of various collective
ills, evils, and shortcomings. The same Indonesian media
rabble-rousers - along with local politicians eager to wrap

JAKARTA 00004464 003.2 OF 003


themselves in the flag or take a notch out of SBY - will
continue to flog the Papuan visa story for some time to come.
This will only intensify if media accounts are accurate that
an additional boatload of asylum-seeking Papuans has washed
ashore in Australia. As evidenced by the statements of some
Indonesian politicians, many Indonesians still see Australia
as the arch villain behind the independence of East Timor and
will continue to view with deep suspicion its actions
regarding Papua.

PASCOE