“How can they do this to us?”
That’s the response that I got when asking a house-wife in a Jakarta suburb on revelations that Australia had tapped the phones of Indonesia’s president and his inner circle, including his wife.
Meanwhile, in downtown Jakarta, police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who pelted eggs, burnt Australian flag and pictures of Prime Minister Tony Abbot in front of Australian embassy. Smaller demonstrations, with similar rage, also occurred in student city of Jogjakarta in central Java and Malang in east Java this week.
For the house wife and the Indonesian public at large, the allegation of the wire tapping, an uninterrupted headline this week, is appalling. They can’t believe that a neighboring, more powerful country would stab a friend from the back.
The majority of the public found it’s unpalatable that friendly countries spy on one another. Tapping in the First Lady made if even more revolting; an overboard breach of trust.
I have never seen such a public outrage against Australia since the East Timor crisis in 1999. What made it even more interesting is that this is all happened within days. Well, okay, maybe not days. There were quite many Indonesians who were alarmed (if not irked) when Australia Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in September said that Australia doesn’t need Indonesia permission on its ‘stop the boat’ plan.
The culmination of the spy spat happened when Prime Minister Tony Abbot addressed the Australian parliament, saying the country “doesn’t need to apologize” and that espionage is part and parcel in international relations. Abbot has just added significant salts to the wound.
A sidebar story was also interesting with abusive tweets from Mark Textor, a prominent pollster whose firm advises Abbot’s Liberal party, liking Indonesia Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa with a 1970 pornstar and that President SBY was using an outdated calendar. Textor also tweeted “What sort of head of state communicates…by twitter FFS?” (google what FFS means yourself).
Textor initially didn’t see the need to apologize before actually doing so the next day (he has deleted the tweets and reportedly quit Twitter). His comments, Bishop’s and that of Abbot’s have reinforced stereotypes of arrogant, ‘we can do whatever we want’ Australian. All the talks about Indonesia being their most important neighbor have so far been unfounded.
As things stands, the damage list from the rift includes Indonesia recalling its ambassador in Canberra (a strong diplomatic protest, the second time in history), recalling its jets from joint military exercise in Darwin, an Indonesian state enterprise halting investment talks for cattle, and crucially, suspending police cooperation to stop illegal boat people, a politically sensitive issue in Australia. The surge in nationalist sentiment prompted the Indonesia hacktivist community, usually targeting Indonesia’s government sites, to attack Australia’s police and central bank websites.
All of those happened within five days. The stern actions, and more importantly, the swiftness of the actions taken by President SBY (seen by many Indonesians as spineless) have earned him newfound respect from the home crowd. “I feel he really is our president. I’m proud,” said an office helper.
More retaliation might be in the offing: there have been calls from academicians and politicians to eject some Australian diplomats, while Indonesian ministers and politicians are planning to revise animal health law so it can import beefs from other countries, threatening the quasi-monopoly enjoyed by Australia.
Indonesia has a clear upper hand and has shown, quite surprisingly, that it’s willing to play all its cards. Economic wise, the G-20 member has nearly $1 trillion of gross domestic product, the biggest in Southeast Asia, and with its relatively young population of 250 million and over 5% economic growth rate, the country could become the world’s top 10 economies in less than two decades.
In terms of geography, it sits in among the key routes of global trade and has the longest coastline in the world, making it a crucial country in regional security. It’s also the last stopover for Australian-bound asylum seekers, a tricky problem for successive Australian governments.
Indonesia is also showing a more proactive stance to lead the culturally and economically divided ASEAN, a grouping of 10 Southeast Asian countries, in recent years. It received international plaudits when it rescued ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting from humiliating failure to produce a joint statement in 2012 and has so far managed to relatively tone down China’s assertive position regarding the South China Sea.
The surging relevance of Indonesia at international stage made it a strategic country for the likes of United States, China, Japan and Russia in exerting their influence in this part of the world. The United Kingdom, South Korea, Germany, and Australia are trying to catch up with the big boys in deepening ties with Indonesia. (The Scandinavians, French, Dutch, and the Latin American are also engaging more with Indonesia).
Indonesia of the 21st century knows this, and therefore, demanding greater respect from its counterparts. With no apparent allegiance to a particular country, Indonesia can swiftly tip-toe between allies as it sees fit.
So far, Abbot’s not singing the right tone to the Indonesian ears. He has managed to turn a diplomatic stress into the greatest public outrage in 14 years, creating a very bad rapport for whoever becomes Indonesia’s next president (election mid 2014).
P.S.: Abbot’s damage control would be closely observed by other Asian leaders (leaked documents showed Australia spied on China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam), and with likely leaks from Eric Snowden in the future, chest-thumping, dismissive gestures won’t cut it.
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