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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