Banyan | Australia and Indonesia

Revealing whose secrets?

Indonesia is furious that Australia seems to have been spying on its leaders

By Banyan | SINGAPORE

ANGELA MERKEL, Germany’s chancellor, retained a certain stony dignity in her fury when she learned that America had been eavesdropping on her phone calls. On November 19th Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia’s president, took to that undignified medium, Twitter, to lodge a “strong protest” at the “hurtful action” by Australia in apparently listening in to his.

He had already instructed his foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, to recall Indonesia’s ambassador from Canberra. Now, he tweeted, co-operative projects with Australia were under review. And he complained that Tony Abbott, Australia’s new prime minister (pictured above with Mr Yudhoyono), had “belittled” the matter, making a statement on it without any remorse.

In the campaign for the election he won in September, Mr Abbott’s foreign-policy platform was summed up in two short phrases. “More Jakarta, less Geneva” meant that he would concentrate on Australia’s immediate region, and especially its huge neighbour to the north. “Stop the boats” meant he would stem the flow of thousands of asylum-seekers arriving in Australian waters. Most stop off in Indonesia.

That Indonesia’s leadership is now barely on speaking terms with his government is therefore something of a setback. Indonesia was already angry at suggestions, from leaks by the former American National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden, that Australian embassies around Asia were used for electronic eavesdropping in an American-led network.

Now, thanks to Mr Snowden, Guardian Australia and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation a document has emerged from 2009, appearing to show that Australia’s Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) that year was bugging the phone of Mr Yudhoyono and his closest circle—including his wife, his vice-president, his spokesman (later Ambassador in Washington) and his finance minister (now a senior official at the World Bank).

For those intent on spying on Mr Yudhoyono—his views, policies and private life—it was a well-chosen list. What those on it clearly find bewildering is that most are also among the most important friends the West has in Indonesia.

The document, apparently a presentation on how to spy on your neighbours and influence your political bosses, was marked on every page with the DSD’s motto: “Reveal their secrets; Protect our own.”

A visibly angry Mr Natalegawa on November 18th professed himself “flabbergasted” . “It is nothing less than an unfriendly act, which is already having a very serious impact on bilateral relations,” he said.

Mr Abbott’s efforts to calm things (if that is what they were) only added fuel to the fire. He did not confirm the claims. But neither did he deny them or apologise for the intrusion. Indeed, he sounded rather aggressive: “Australia should not be expected to apologise for the steps we take to protect our country now or in the past.”

Unless he can find a way of moderating that stance, it is hard to see the quarrel dissipating quietly. And that will jeopardise not just what Mr Abbott sees as the most important bilateral relationship Australia has, but also his boat-people strategy.

Indonesia had already been alarmed by his policy, involving using the navy to turn boats back to Indonesia, as well as buying vessels from fishermen who might be tempted to rent them to people-smugglers, and paying Indonesians for information about the trade.

Many others also doubt the wisdom of this approach. Whatever its merits, it relies on Indonesian co-operation. That now seems something of a long-shot.

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