Cartoonist fails Diplomacy 101
If Australia was gaining any ascendency in the Great Cartoon debate we lost it with Bill Leaks answering Rakyat Merdeka’s grubby effort depicting Howard and Downer in sexual union with a equally grubby cartoon depicting SBY doing something similar to the West Papuans.
Bill , in a satirical piece in todays Australian asks;WHY is it that us cartoonists are copping so much flak lately? Because some of your cartoons offend people, that’s why, but then you already know that Bill, it’s how you sell copy. Satire, all to often an excuse for stating ones opinion under the guise of poor taste, doesn’t answer the critics and all the cartoon has done is made it more difficult for Howard and Downer to placate the Indonesians over the Papuan refugees.
It’s difficult enough as it is without undergrad humour.
Trying to bring some sense into the debate PM Howard tries to defuses the debate saying;
(He was) optimistic yesterday that Australian-Indonesian relations would survive the rift over Papua, as Australians rallied in four cities to support the Papuan cause for independence from Jakarta.I’m not sure supporting the Free West Papua movement is the way to go at the moment. Better to keep encouraging the Indonesians to be reasonable in their handling of the area. I’m further convinced it’s a no-win situation when I read Senator Bob Brown addressed the rally. If he’s involved whatever he suggests won’t be in anyones interest. I note in other sources that the Indonesians have refused to give Greens Senator Kerry Nettle a visa to visit. Good move. Bob Brown is quotes as saying;
“If the Howard Government’s repeated calls for liberty and democracy around the world are not hollow, then it must act to ensure one million West Papuans get liberty and democracy,” Senator Brown said.Long on Howard bashing yet decidedly short on suggestions as to just how Australia might force Indonesia to give West Papuans liberty and democracy. What does Bob mean by liberty and democracy…Independance? ….another East Timor? No wonder the Indonesians are cranky with loose cannons like Brown suggesting in a public arena that Australia should ensure anything relating to what are after all, peoples of a sovereign government. Let the diplomats encourage the Indons to lift their game without making public statements that could be construed as interefering threats.
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Do you also believe that Australia shouldn’t have fought in Iraq to free Iraqi’s from Sadam, or to ensure their democratic freedoms?
It must be one or the other. You can’t say the Iraqi’s are entitled to being “freed” but that West Papuans aren’t.
If you support the move to bring Australian troops home from Iraq, and believe that they should never have gone, then it’s reasonable of you to disagree with us meddling with Indonesian sovereignty. Otherwise it would seem hypercritical. Sorry to ask but I’m just curious.
Corrupt as it may have been, West Papua was acquired by the Indonesians through a UN process. So it’s a little bit more complicated than that Max.
Richard Chauvel wrote a piece on Papua in the Australian last week. He has a much more substantial piece of academic writing on Papua where he suggests that the special autonomy law, enacted by the Indonesian Parliament but never implemented, might be one way out of this mess. Of course the Indonesians are terrified about where that may lead, but for committed Australian activists, I think this is a much more worthwhile outlet for their frustrations. At least it puts the Papuans in charge of some measure of their destiny within a democratic framework.
Richard Chauvel’s work here (PDF):
http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/2006/March/papua-nationalism.pdf
It must be one or the other. You can’t say the Iraqi’s are entitled to being “freed? but that West Papuans aren’t.
No, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. There are few similarities between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Saddam; Indonesia is not sabre rattling about taking over any other country and whereas the Indonesians behaviour is far from proper in West Papua it is still far short of requiring Australia to invade and force freedom on the area.
Although I don’t doubt lives have been taken by the Indon Military I doubt they are in Saddam’s league as yet, at least I haven’t read of any such evidence – have you?
SBY hasn’t declared war on any of his neighbours and subsequently attacked and raped their resources, he hasn’t been slaughtering his citizens in the hundreds of thousands and he hasn’t been snubbing his nose at the UN for a decade over WMDs.
Don’t think for a moment that I’m on Indonesia’s side in this issue but government to government talks involving diplomacy have a far better chance than threats of ensuring liberty and democracy Although a long way from civilized the Indons have improved under SBY and silly protest marches with the Bob Brown demanding action from Howard and Kerry Nettle trying to enter the area to stir up trouble are counter productive.
Saddam was never going to change and was a threat to the stability of the Middle East. SBY is improving all the time.
Your comment and Bob Browns suggests we force the Indons to give West Papuans liberty and democracy but that implies invasion and we have a lot of dimplomacy to try before that.
The UN gave Indonesia sovereignty in West NG – does that make it right? The UN is an incompetent and corrupt organisation. West New Guinea is not part of Indonesia, so why should Indonesia ever have been allowed to take over a country whose citizens are of a different race, speak a different language (or languages) and where the social structure is completely alien? Why should Indonesia be allowed to force repressive Islamic religious practises onto NG tribespeople?
I agree that a liberation movement for WNG supported by Australia is not the way to go right now, but the reason behind Indonesia’s indignation is fear that some of its nefarious actions may be exposed to the world – just as the butchery and rape in East Timor was exposed.
And why should Indonesia be ‘placated’? The New Guineans have presented a legitimate case for asylum, should we turn our backs on them in order to kowtow to the childish petulance of Indonesians? In the view of many Australians, we have already ‘placated’ Indonesia far too much – and where did this get us? Terrorist attacks against Australians and threats of more if we refuse to bend the knee.
I made no comment about whether it was a rightful outcome Dee. Nor did I mention the probity of the UN. But it does represent an organisation and a set of processes that in other circumstances many of the Papuan supporters would consider inviolate. An interesting conundrum for them, and something that other countries (perhaps from the Middle East) would be quick to point out in defence of Indonesia. Frankly, short of some pretty spectacular human rights violations several orders of magnitude greater than what we’re seeing, the previous UN blessing makes unilateral action politically impossible. That’s why I suggest pursuing action within the present Indonesian political framework. I think it has a reasonable chance of succeeding (the legislation is in place), and in the long-term, I think it is possible we could see the same outcome with a lot less bloodshed.
When I think Bali I think more radical Islamists rather than Indonesians and in any case we certainly don’t want a shit-fight over Irian Jaya. Yes, the locals have a point and the Indons are less than civilised when dealing with them but that is the same over a lot of the archipeligo.
We ‘placate’ them because it’s better than having a fight with them and the more we do so the less chance of radicals blowing up Aussie tourists and the more the Indon government and agencies will cooperative with the AFP and ADF.
In short, we try to bring them up to our standards not lower ourselves to theirs – something that Bill Leak can’t quite grasp.
I agree we can’t go to war with Indon or make threats along those lines. I fully believe in democracy and diplomacy as being the primary strategies for achieving political stability. You are right there is a lot of democracy and diplomacy yet to try.
On the same token there was a lot of democracy (in the UN) and diplomacy to try with Saddam, but that wasn’t good enough for the US. They wanted to go there own way. They even made up WMD stories to support their actions.
I don’t support Bob Brown’s statement, I’m just saying that we should be (as a Nation) prepared to exert pressure on Indonesia over the West Papuan situation. I’m saying that we SHOULDN’T be like the US, who seem to prefer the path of military solutions.
As I recall Saddam thumbed his nose at the UN for about ten years or more and if the US made up WMD stories then we have the most amazing series of coincidences ever recorded in the history of mankind with every other intelligence service and country also making up WMD stories at the same time….wow…it’s almost unbelievable.
Maybe the US should’ve waited until 2011 to give the UN twenty years of achieving nothing and Saddam 2 decades of ignoring sanctions and the West’s silly idea that one shouldn’t slaughter ones own citizens.
In discussions with anti-US readers I’m always emboldened to ask; If you were in Geroge Bushes shoes on the day the WTC was bombed, what would you have done? Too date I’ve received no rational answers – only more criticism.
I agree, however that we do need to keep pressure on Indonesia which was my original point.
Saddam Hussein was foolish enough to continue thumbing his nose at the UN and by doing so, he put himself in the wrong and created a reason for the invasion of Iraq. Bill Clinton, Madelaine Albright et al. all believed that Saddam had WMDs – and at some stage, this must have been correct, what did he use against the Kurds and his own people if not WMDs?
I know its Dreamtime, but perhaps Pres. Bush should have declared Saudi Arabia a terrorist country and invaded it instead of Iraq. The money financing terrorism comes mainly from SA, the most virulent anti-Western, anti-Jewish hate preachers seem to come from SA (listen to the friday night sermons by the sheiks and imans of the ‘religion of peace’), and the Islamic clergy of that country are the most bloodthirsty and intolerant fanatics in the Muslim world, although Iran comes a close second. Some of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi Arabians, so is bin Laden, and this country continually exports its rabid doctrines to other countries – one of the present targets is Indonesia. Yet Pres. Bush continues to state that SA is an ally of the West.
If SA is a friend, God protect us from our enemies. The Australian govt. should be well aware of the Saudi influence in Indonesia, and never believe for a moment that Indonesia is any more a friend than other Muslim countries.
You gutless nobody Kev – Appeasement is appeasement wheter its woth Saddam or Mugabe or the Javanese pollies ripping the heart out of West Papua. Look at a map- it aint part of Indonesia matey.
ansteybranchopolous
Appeasement refers to backing away from a war vis-a-vis Chamberlain which is not the situation here. Yes, do look at the map and you find that Irian Jaya is a part of Indonesia although I do get your point and tend to agree.
However, if you look at the entire Indonesian Archipeligo it is made up of some 3,000 islands all of which would have been, or still are, not Indonesians per se. Along with 3,000 islands Indonesia has had to confront the problems of a similar number of dialects so there is little point saying look at the map – that would apply 3,000 times or at least with every location other than Java.
Are you looking for a fight with them?
Dee,
Yes we all know about Saudi Arabia but I’m of the opinion that a democracy next door in Iraq will start the movement for democracy in SA. When Iraq is stable look for heavy pressure from Washington and we’re not to know that the pressure isn’t already being applied.
I’d say Washington takes the approach they do to try and neutralize them until they can afford to give them their full attention. With Iran supposedly trying to build nuclear weapons to wipe Israel of the face of the earth I’d say the US has to prioritize Iran before SA.
kev – West papua is simply the latest part of Indomesia realisign they dont want to be ripped off anymore
Who do you think you are,meddling with other country’s business.You’d better take care your own backyard and give aborigines their basic rights.
Topo,
Aborigines have the same rights as other Australians and considerably more than the dead of East Timor and Irian Jaya. You need to read more before you blindly criticise the West.
I’m not interfering with other country’s business, I am commenting on matters raised by others.
YOur redneckism is astounding Kev – I supose with your name and feeds on Brissie weather what else could be expected. Your fear of upsetting Indonesia over Wes tPapua reeks of cowardice. Surely with our wel larmed army and strong alliances with the US we should suport the aims of th epauans who seek democracry – my god they even have a massive mine so we’d get something out of it.