Beware of thy neighbor

As Australian government granted the visa to the 42 Papuans who fled their home for fear of prosecution, Indonesia responded by recalling its ambassador. The diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Australia, that had not been smooth since 1998, is at its lowest ebb.

Australian government said that the decision to grant asylum to a group of Papuans does not undermine Australia's position that the province is indispensable part of the Republic of Indonesia. Before the public, Australia’s attitude seemed to be very supportive toward Indonesia. But subtly, I feel that it has a very strong desire to see the breaking up of the fragile nation. Do you see the contradictions? On one hand Australia supported a united Indonesia and against the notion of independent Papua, but on the other hand it openly admitted the 42 Papuans, who are mostly the member of separatist movement.

Don’t forget the painful East Timor incident. When we annexed the territory in 1975, Australia was one of the many countries that approved and supported Indonesia’s action. There had been many human rights abuses since that time, but Australia decided to keep mum about it because of the being given the oil share in the Timor Gap (Greater Sunrise). They did not threaten to bring the matter to the United Nation then. Only after Australian see the correlation between supporting the independence movement and the increase in the share of oil from the future East Timor government, then it started to mention about human rights abuses. When its interest is at stake, Australia abandoned the friendship. A good friend, or at least neighbor, would not force the other to such a corner.

There is an old Chinese saying “a knife is hidden beneath the smile”. I think that this attitude is what we should adopt in relation with Australia. I am strongly approve and supportive of the government action to recall the ambassador. I think it is not excessive, like what the Australian said, but rather insufficient. Australia had worked blatantly against Indonesia in many instances but we keep on forgiving it. The forgiveness it self is seen as a form of weaknesses that being exploited by Australia.

From the way the Australian accused Indonesia about human right abuses, it gives me an impression that Australia see itself like an angel who tell the human not to do evil. In reality the angel itself is no different from the sinful human. It keeps on criticizing Indonesia on the human right abuses. But does it tell anyone that Australia itself had commuted atrocities against the Aborigines? Does it show any sign of regret from vehemently robbing the Aborigines of their lands? When Australia keeps on pointing a finger at the others, perhaps they also need to know that the four remaining fingers pointed at themselves.

After all, Australia is no different from kangaroo. A kangaroo who listens only to the zoo keepers, jumping and stamping around recklessly. It obeys every single shit said by the master and shamelessly willing to be the slave of the zookeeper. It cares little about its relation with others of the same kind and feels satisfied as long as the zookeeper is happy. What an animal indeed.