Indonazia foils 'gun boat' charity

I admire our glorious PM for being able to muster the sheepish grin with which he today genially brushed off Jakarta's latest edict on Aceh aid (only where we let you deliver it, and only with TNI 'escorts' - and make sure you decamp within three months!) as "I suppose it's a sensible thing, really", or words to this effect.

This is after all the same PM who had to be dragged, with his deplorably defeatist foreign minister in tow, both fighting it tooth and nail all the way, into a belated intervention after the East Timor election! He turned around only in the face of almost rebellious public opinion in favor of Australian intervention. And supreme politico that he is he hasn't stopped congratulating himself on his 'courageous' stand ever since...

Today's meek acquiscence over Aceh is doubly embarrassing because not only had Australia just despatched the Navy vessel Kanimbla to Sumatran waters - to help with engineering tasks, to be sure, but still a politically fraught decision that smacked of ye olde gunboat diplomacy. But Australian commanders on the devastated ground in Aceh had repeatedly and loudly proclaimed the almost 1000-strong unarmed contingent would stay for as long as it takes! Such charitable ambitions had earlier received local TNI shots across the bows, but Jacarta has now confirmed it doesn't want anyone in the rebellious peninsula without its army's say-so and 'protection'.

It's a bit rich for a corrupt, militarily monstrous, environmentally irresponsible, bankrupt nation to stipulate conditions for accepting around a billion dollars in Australian aid.

But I suppose it's all in our mutual interest, and not to worry, we'll rebuild our somewhat tattered co-operation with the TNI. Imagine what would happen if we had to negotiate with an independent, or even an autonomous Aceh for gas and oil concessions! Remember the hassles with Timor Leste?

I had a bad feeling of deja vu when I saw heavily armed TNI troopers spearheading back into the Aceh hinterland, at one stage commandeering a TV crew's launch, within days after the tsunami.

In the days when General Wirranto's henchmen wreaked havoc in East Timor while they could, I apostrophied them 'IndoNazis'. The tigers' spots on their fatigues apparently haven't changed much since.

It wouldn't really surprise me, therefore, if some TNI brass, and perhaps some of their political puppeteers, gave thanks, quietly, in a clearing, facing Mecca, for the 'divine' intervention that has made their mopping up in GAM territory so much easier...