I have publicly stated a number of times that Indonesia's progress into being a parliamentary democracy in such a short space of time has been extraordinary, particularly given the challenges involved. This is often underappreciated in Australia, as it is easy to underestimate how hard a task this is for any country.
However, while this fact should be noted and welcomed, it should not be used to obscure some of the significant problems that still remain, particularly in the area of human rights abuses. As the Committee noted in paragraph 4.38, most of the submissions to the inquiry concerned human rights issues, and particularly the situation in Papua. From my reading, most of them did not address the issue of independence for Papua, but rather a concern that human rights issues should not be ignored, and the risk that by increasing direct military cooperation, that Australia may be inadvertently facilitating human rights abuses.
Whilst it is not the place of the Committee to make definitive conclusions about the full extent and nature of the human rights situation, it is none the less not something that can just be ignored. Despite the restrictions on access to Papua, there is still widespread evidence that serious human rights abuses continue, and that segments within the Indonesian military are complicit in much of this.
It is easy to point to human rights issues in other countries whilst diminishing those in one's own country, and I fully acknowledge Australia is less than perfect as well. Australia certainly doesn't have many positive lessons to share with the world when it comes to facilitating or promoting self-determination for the Indigenous peoples in our country, a fact which no doubt many in Indonesia note when issues of self-determination in Papua are raised.
It is my view that sensitivities around Papua played a big part in both countries deciding to adopt a Treaty with wording such as this one. But this is also one of the key areas where it is quite possible that circumstances will arise that will generate the sort of impossible to meet expectations that Professor White was referring to in his comment above. We cannot wish away human rights concerns just because they make our relationship with another country uncomfortable. Leaving aside ethical considerations about such things, history has given us enough examples to show that such an approach usually does not work in the long run. |