By Jon Land
Australia's biggest trade and business promotion ever held overseas was opened by foreign affairs and trade minister Gareth Evans in Jakarta on June 14. The $8 million project has displays by some 500 businesses.
During the three weeks of the trade fair, Paul Keating will head the largest delegation of Australian federal and state ministers ever to visit Indonesia. The Northern Territory is holding a similar but smaller trade fair, which is expected to attract investors from across South-East Asia, including some 450 Indonesian business people.
Australian companies are well placed to take advantage of Indonesia's recent changes to foreign investment laws, which from June 2 allow 100% foreign ownership. Mining and engineering firms like CRA, BHP and Transfield have developed extensive interests throughout Indonesia and have been joined by other major firms such as Lend Lease in the recent period.
Oil and gas companies have high hopes for projects in the Timor Gap. Deposits in this region have been estimated at 100 million to 1 billion barrels of oil plus a further 50,000 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
The Jakarta trade fair represents the culmination of steps in recent years by the Australian government and business to develop a much closer relationship with the Indonesian elite. Patrick Walters, the Jakarta correspondent for the Australian, comments, "At no other time in the almost 50 year history of Australia-Indonesia relations have Jakarta and Canberra put more effort into the strengthening of political, economic and cultural ties".
Less well publicised has been the extension of military cooperation between the Australian Defence Forces and ABRI (Indonesian armed forces). Major-General Peter Arnison, soon to be second in command of the ADF, on June 16 announced proposals for joint exercises and an extensive tour by ADF heads later this year.
Part of this will involve a visit by Air Commodore Peter Nicholson to the eastern provinces of Indonesia. Nicholson and 15 other officers will tour the commands responsible for the islands east of Bali, including illegally occupied East Timor. In the June 9 Canberra Times, Nicholson is quoted as stating, "Human rights is not as big a problem as it is made out to be and the figure of 200,000 people killed on the island [East Timor] is simply not true".
The elite Indonesian Kopassus commando forces which train regularly at the SAS base near Perth have been documented by church, human rights and solidarity groups as involved in torture and murder in East Timor and throughout Indonesia. Joint naval exercises took place last August off the coast from Darwin. Officer exchange programs are increasing.
Nicholson's comments mirror those of successive Australian governments which have preferred to put oil dollars and trade before human lives.