Protecting our national interests?

Writing in On Line Opinion, Gary Brown exposes the "insidious influence of those in the Canberra bureaucracy who favour good relations with Jakarta whatever the domestic political price or international humiliation."

I was ringside for two decades whilst this lobby held sway over foreign policy thinking. Our neglect of South Asia and Indo-China, our paternalistic approach to Melanesia, our obsequious collaboration with repressive regimes in the Phillipines, Indonesia, China and elsewhere has seen Australia compromise its core values in thrall to confused notions of what is in our national interest.

For decades we dealt with India on a piecemeal, tokenistic basis, whilst bending over backwards for repressive governments in Jakarta.

A stable, democratic Indonesia is in our interest, but ongoing appeasement of and collaboration with policies designed to prop up the economic interests of powerful players with TNI backing will not facilitate this outcome. West Papuans and ordinary Indonesians are the victims of these policies. Australia should encourage Indonesia toward further strengthening of its democratic institutions and regional autonomy for areas of political conflict such as Aceh and West Papua.

The pandering to repressive tendencies in the Indonesian body politic, in return for grubby trade-offs, is a Canberra mindset harmful to our longer term security interests.