On June 28, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove all restrictions on foreign military financing for Indonesia in the fiscal year 2006 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill. The restrictions were first put in place after the Indonesian military’s destruction of East Timor following the half-island’s pro-independence vote in August of 1999. The House decision follows years of Bush administration… return to article
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Reader Comments (6)Page 1 of 1 pages“Indonesian security officials responded to human rights criticism aggressively, pointing to the United States invasion of Iraq and subsequent acts of torture in Abu Ghraib prison to justify Indonesia’s own military operations and question the credibility of American human rights policies.”
Yes, the U.S. is the beacon of freedom and human rights to the rest of the world. How far low has this country sunk when corrupt, third-world governments justify their human rights abuses by pointing to America? Scorp, care to comment on the importance of faith in democracy? How do you explain the rehabilitation of U.S.-Indonesian ties under the Bush administration?
Bush is disgusting when he uses gross oversimplifications to describe the policies of foreign leaders. Saddam is a madman, so we can’t believe a word he says, yet Yudhoyono is credible. Explain THAT logic. Anyone?
Posted by Liberal on Sep 13, 2005 at 5:07 PM You picked out exactly the same line Rabbit wanted to point to. Liberal, Rabbit was making the point in the China thread that Chinese Human rights have been going backwards again after years of improvement, since the supposed leaders in human rights have dropped the ball in this regard. The same is certainly true of Indonesia.
Indonesia and Australian governments have been getting very cosy over the last few years.
We supported East Timorise independence so we could steal the Timorise oil as soon as they were no longer under Indonesian wing. Our elite forces have been training elite Indonesian forces for a while. There are a few issues recently which have begun to make Aussies more aware than ever that Indonesia is not a very nice neighbor and whats more our government seems to be sucking up to all the wrong people just now.
Posted by GhostRabbit on Sep 14, 2005 at 2:38 AM Interesting, does Indonesia seem too far awy to most for it to be an issue?
Odd since, the planet is really quite small.
Posted by GhostRabbit on Sep 15, 2005 at 2:05 AM There’s a history lesson in here somewhere about the hazards of forced amalgamation of disparate cultures into a nation-state, particularly when so many of those cultures had so little identification with an entity called “Indonesia”, back in the day. It’s no wonder TNI had to bust a hard move against the East Timorese before and as they devolved, and GAM today; those people’s feel/felt imprisoned by an authority structure they neither chose nor felt compelled to accept.
Nothing like a gun in your mouth to convince you to accept a “foreign” passport as your own.
I imagine the US is getting close to Yodhoyono in part because of the jihadist movement embodied by Jemmah Islamiyya, said to be affiliated with al-Qaeda and the inspirational force behind the bombing in Oct 2002 in Bali. Enemy-of-my-enemy, yes? But that sort of strategy, in my reading of history, tends to backfire. Not necessarily for us, but for our kids when they grow up, at which time the oppressor we fed in order to combat our enemy du jour becomes the next generation’s enemy du jour.
Is it just a cyclical habit of thought and policy that no one wants to learn from? A layered agenda with an exposed face as well as a hidden one (like accessing Indon resources more easily)? There’s so much room for so much speculation, little of it truly outlandish.
Posted by Kuya on Sep 15, 2005 at 8:27 AM Kuya Rabbit thinks the friendliness between Indo and USA/OZ is older on certain levels than any Al-Qaeda bogeymen.
There are events even in the news of late which lead thoughtful people to wonder that ther is not a hidden level of very intense co-operation on certyain levels.
Maybe no more than a favour for a favour, but something is not right.
We are being ‘Trained’ via media to hate the Indo’s, (Witness; Recent F*cked up drug convictions of Aussies over there eg: Michelle Corby) yet our elite SAS are training the Indo’s and there seems to be a strangely streamlined level of co-operation between our police forces.
Fact is that this does not seem to be a natural evolution of international relationships due to world events, as much as it appears as an unmasking of a level of co-operation hithertoo barely hinted at.
But why what appears to be an orchestrated campaign of events to make the Indonesians look lousy to us? More fear perhaps?
Is the bogeyman who has existed at the back of Australian consciousness for many years, being given form and shape?
A threatening Indonesia? Especially easy if they are in on the game too?
Just Rabbit speculating.
Posted by GhostRabbit on Sep 17, 2005 at 10:24 AM Since this is a little used thread, and OZ gets a mention a re-post of a Rabbit Rant which felt so good saying it must be worth it again.
Rabbit is actually sorry to be nasty to Nice Americans, and there are many who are as horified at what is going on as Rabbit. Rabbit knows that there are as many Americans who know exactly what is going on and are doing all they can to change things. There are some who are willfully ignorant and there are a vast majority who are just mis-informed.
Aussies are no better when it comes to being mis-informed, and there are also many who are doing their bit to change and then we too have our willfully ignorant.
It’s just that our bastardised government is not such a huge pain in the arse for as many other people as what the present US Junta is for the world. We cannot take bake our freedoms and rights from our lousy governments until your lot gets rid of the running dogs who rule your fatal shore.
The USA calls the shots, we know that. Aussies do not want a bar of what is going on in our name. But even the most pissed of us admit that Little Johnny HowHard, the Arse licker from Canberra, has not got much choice about doing as he’s told.
He’s a gutless little snipe if ever we had one. Our PM is from the same school of thought as Bush, he has the same empathy with the common man and the same loyalty to big business. Also a similar tolerance of the underprivelaged and minorities.
The only difference between Bushler and HowHard is about 100 in IQ. and about three feet in height, just high enough for what he’s there for anyway.
Aussies don’t believe Howhards kids are his, we don’t believe he’s ever had sex with Janet (the missus), he would not be unfaithful to GWB.
Posted by GhostRabbit on Sep 20, 2005 at 3:41 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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