What Bali Nine Lawyers and Family Expect from SBY's Visit

THE father of the Bali death row inmate Scott Rush has expressed cautious optimism that his son's case will be raised by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, in discussions with the man who may ultimately decide his fate.

Lawyers for Scott Rush will lodge a final appeal in the Indonesian Supreme Court this month, and an appeal for clemency to the President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, remains the last resort under the country's system.

''I think it is a worthwhile thing that the Prime Minister speaks to [Dr Yudhoyono] in regards to Australian citizens,'' Lee Rush said yesterday.

Lawyers and family of the three Bali nine convicts who face the death penalty were careful not to be seen to be seeking Australian political interference in the Indonesian legal process during Dr Yudhoyono's visit, fearing a backlash.

But should the appeals fail, they would be relying on the personal relationship between the two leaders, said Julian McMahon, the Melbourne barrister representing Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

Dr Yudhoyono has previously said he would not grant clemency for drug trafficking death sentences, despite the many requests submitted to him. Mr McMahon said the federal government had been very clear about its total opposition to the death penalty.

''Indonesia currently has a different view, but it is a matter often debated in Indonesia. I am hopeful that Indonesia may take a leadership role in the region in this debate in eventually bringing an end to the death penalty.''

Mr McMahon said Indonesia was going through a period of rapid improvement, legal and social reform, and the importance of prisoner rehabilitation was being taken seriously.

The legal team for Chan and Sukumaran has highlighted their ''striking personal reformations'' and positive influence while in Kerobakan prison in Bali, including running classes to teach other prisoners word processing.

Mr McMahon said they would soon lodge their final appeal and could not ask anything of the visiting president while the matter was before the courts.

''We can't expect the Prime Minister and President to be discussing the legal arguments at a time when the arguments are not yet finalised in the courts.''

However, should they lose all legal options, the lawyers and the Australian government would be asking Dr Yudhoyono ''after considering all the circumstances to extend some clemency to our clients''.

''At such a time, personal respect and friendship between leaders can be very important'', Mr McMahon said.

Mr Rush said it was still premature to be talking about the final step of clemency for his son and he was waiting for the appeal to be heard. He would not offer his opinion on the Indonesian legal process.

''Judging the leader of the country or its culture or their system is not a healthy thing for Australians to be doing that.''

A supporter of the Rush family, Father Frank Brennan, also cautioned against the death row appeal becoming a domestic political issue during Dr Yudhoyono's visit and called for ''respect for the Indonesian legal process''.

A lawyer who has previously acted for Scott Rush, Colin McDonald, said the relationship between the Australian and Indonesian governments was ''long past the stage where issues can't be discussed''.Kompas.com

Obama Shouldn't be Welcomed Excessively in Indonesia

ndonesia should not excessively welcome US President Barrack Obama when he visits in mid-March, a senior Indonesian diplomat said. "We should do our welcoming realistically and do not need to be overwhelmed by this relationship," former Indonesian representative at the United Nations Makarim Wibisono said here Monday.

He made the statement after attending the fourth Annual Seminar of the 2009-2010 Political Studies and Prediction of Foreign Affairs and Diplomacy at Paramadina University. According Makarim, Obama’s visit to Indonesia was of particular importance to Indonesia but it also must be handled in a realistic manner.

By bringing his wife Michelle and two daughters, Sasha and Malia, Obama would attract hundreds of journalists from around the world to Indonesia, he added. "It's Obama's will to visit Indonesia 14 months after his inauguration, so he is considered to have already set his country’s foreign policy bases. When he now plans to visit Indonesia, it means that Indonesia has a special meaning in the US scale of priorities," he added.

The International Relations lecturer at Paramadina University who attended Monday’s seminar as a speaker said there were three realistic things in response to Obama’s arrival to Indonesia. Makarim mentioned that the realistic measures such as the US still has a high level of knowledge and technologies, then it is correct that if we want to have a technology transfer, because the US is still a large political and military force until now.

The second measure is to create a policy maneuvering efforts in Southeast Asia because if the region is not stable, then the effort to build Indonesia is no longer possible. Then he said that Indonesia has the things that make Americans also interested, because Indonesia is the third largest democratic country in the world and a Muslim country that has a moderate nature.

Besides that, Indonesia also has the right rated in welcoming President Obama’s visit to Indonesia, as an effort to seek the cooperation based on equality and benefit. "So this is a mutual benefit, not just for Indonesia, but the US also hopes that," added Makarim.

Regarding the Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (CPA) between the two countries, from Obama’s visit is expected to create a real product, and the CPA signing is aimed to be completed during the visit, so there’s a deep milestone in Indonesia-US bilateral relation. The CPA Partnership does not get any resistance from the RI -USA military cooperation, because it is only a technical cooperation, and it does not matter anymore.

The military training cessation between the two countries which had stopped due to a few incidents committed by the Indonesian military who violated human rights, has now been re-established during Obama’s administration. "With the military training, people who previously did not understand human rights became more aware and appreciated because they must stay there (U.S.) for several years and can appreciate the civil domination," Makarim said.Kompas.com

What Australia Says about Indonesia's Surprise Success Stories

Many countries are going badly. Indonesia was always going to be one. Or so we thought. It's turned out to be one of the surprise success stories.

For Australia, Indonesia was always the dark zone of dread, where bad things happened with worse to come. This wasn't entirely baseless. Sukarno's communist demagoguery was real. The brutal repressiveness of Suharto's military dictatorship was no figment of the imagination. But when Suharto's regime fell and the Indonesian economy collapsed simultaneously in 1998, it seemed to be the worst-case scenario.

A new Indonesia, the child of chaos and violence, was supposed to arise. These were the dominant scenarios that Australian Indonesia-watchers sketched out, usually in private, sometimes in public.

The first fear was that without a strong man to hold it together, Indonesia would break up. It would Balkanise, creating a group of fractious, needy, or hostile new countries to our north.

Some Indonesians, watching Australia's sponsorship of East Timor's move to independence, suspected it was unstated policy to encourage a fragmentation. On the contrary. It was never Canberra's policy, but it was one of Canberra's paranoias.

That was the fear. The fact: under the President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, universally known as SBY, the most virulent separatist movement, in Aceh, has been reconciled. The West Papuan independence movement is moribund. The country is unified and stable. East Timor was the only breakaway, and its sad stagnation has not inspired imitators.

The second big fear was that without a military dictator to repress fundamentalist Islam, Indonesia would turn radical.

Perhaps the Islamists would take control through the ballot box. Perhaps the Islamic extremists would revive the Darul Islam project to overthrow the government violently and impose fundamentalist sharia law. Either way, Indonesia would become a brooding presence, increasingly hostile to Western values and inimical to Australian interests.

The fact: as the Australian National University's Greg Fealy wrote after last year's legislative elections: "Despite the fact that almost 90 per cent of the electorate is Muslim, Islamic parties gained less than 30 per cent of the vote - their lowest figure over the three democratic elections held after the downfall of President Suharto in 1998."

This doesn't mean Indonesians are abandoning Islam. There is a trend to increasing religious observance. A growing percentage are attending prayers, fasting during Ramadan, and using Islamic banks. Muslims pursue their religious beliefs as a personal, social and religious matter, not a political one. Voters demand better services from their government, not religious exhortation.

Other religions, including its Christian churches, are flourishing too. In the immediate post-Suharto years, churches were firebombed in an effort to foment sectarian upheaval. In an interesting role reversal, it's in next-door Malaysia that churches are under attack. In Indonesia, religious tolerance is practised and the secular state is increasingly entrenched.

A relapse into military dictatorship was the third scenario. A new-generation general would assert control. Perhaps he'd be provoked by an Islamist uprising, by the break-up of the nation, or by political disarray.

The fact: Indonesia today is led by a former general, but was chosen by the people in a free election, not just once, but now for a second term. SBY is a model democrat.

The only generals that vie for power do so at the ballot box. They campaign for votes like other candidates do, often singing ballads at rallies to woo voters rather than ordering the troops to intimidate them.

Democracy is entrenched as the sole source of legitimacy. The media is one of the world's most thrusting and free, and strong democratic institutions are increasingly solid. Corruption remains a serious problem, but the polity is struggling mightily to break its grip.

Neighbouring Thailand has relapsed into military coups. In Indonesia, the generals are in the barracks and no one in Jakarta speaks of coups any more.

Fourth was the fear that massive economic dislocation and political unrest would precipitate a torrent of Indonesian boat people. In a country of 230 million, it was often pointed out, you'd only need 1 per cent to head for the boats and Australia's systems would be overwhelmed.

The fact: the economic and political upheaval came and went. And the boat people? None came. Refugees from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and other countries have, via Indonesia, but the Indonesians stayed home. They are pretty happy where they are.

And, since the trauma of the Asian economic crisis in 1998, Indonesia's economy has developed better than almost anyone could have imagined. In the crisis, one-seventh of the Indonesian economy evaporated, while interest rates shot up to 75 per cent. But its average for the last five years is 5 per cent a year, behind only China and India among the region's economies.

The World Bank recently said Indonesia has a ''unique opportunity to rise as a dynamic, inclusive, middle-income country which can be both a leading sophisticated commodity economy like Australia [and] a hub of labour-intensive industry in Asia like China".

The final fear was Indonesia would be an impenetrable safe haven for terrorists, who would launch operations against Australia at will. Indonesia was so riddled with Islamist extremists, and the Indonesian state so weak and incompetent, Australia would have to live in a permanent state of terrorist siege.

The fact: there have been terrorist attacks against Australian citizens and interests, including the Bali bombing. The threat remains real. But the Indonesian authorities, in co-operation with Australian counterparts, have proved to be vigorous and highly effective counter-terrorists.

For all of these reasons, the Australian Parliament tomorrow recognises Indonesia's emergence as a moderate, stable, peaceful, secular democracy, and it honours Yudhoyono as the pivot on which it has turned, when he addresses a joint sitting.