On Thu, 21 Jun 2001, Russell Chapman wrote:
> Alberto Monteiro wrote:
>
> > Australia is still a monarchy.
> >
> > I don't know enough about Indonesia, and the recent news were
> > mostly biased towards showing Indonesia = Evil,
> > East Timor = Good ...
[snip]
> power). As for Indonesia, the idea is that corrupt enclave (read family)
> running Indonesia is evil, warlords acting as minions of said enclave are evil
> - Indonesia as a country is still in the process of shaking off that
> corruption, but couldn't be described as evil over all. There are still
> elections, and an emerging political process that goes beyond one-party.
A lot of the political turmoil in Indonesia right now is the House of
Representatives (and by default the Consultative Assembly) cementing its
authority over the President, a situation that was thoroughly reversed
during the days of "Pak" Suharto. There are other problems, but this is
the central one i think, in both the long and short term.
Australia has had the intelligence through the original and current
growing pains to main ties and aid to Indonesia, simply because to do
otherwise would strengthen the wrong forces within Indonesia.
IMHO :)
Ibrahim Underwood
