The adventure of two dingo (sic)
- From: "Tilly" <TillyGr@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 00:50:58 +1200
One of Indonesia's biggest-selling newspapers has depicted John Howard and
Alexander Downer as a pair of sex-crazed dingoes, dragging media outrage
over the Papua visa row down to a new low.
The front page of the Islamic-leaning Rakyat Merdeka (People's Freedom)
newspaper was dominated by the cartoon of the two having sex under a palm
tree on an otherwise barren island signposted "Papua".
Headlined "The adventure of two dingo" (sic), the drawing shows the prime
minister as the dominant dog, shaking as he tells the foreign minister: "I
want Papua!! Alex! Try to make it happen!"
A small Australian flag hangs off the PM's wagging tail.
In the wake of Australia's decision to grant visas to 42 Papuan asylum
seekers, Indonesian nationalists accuse Canberra of secretly plotting
Papua's breakaway from Jakarta's grasp, likening it to the 1999 independence
crisis in East Timor.
The lurid caricature is the worst-taste example of a new Papua cartoon craze
in the Indonesian media since the row flared last week.
The media's response has perhaps been given added edge by still-simmering
anger in Indonesia over the Prophet Mohammed cartoon furore.
Another Jakarta paper depicted the hairy arm of a gorilla labelled as
Australia shaking hands with a suit and cufflink-clad Indonesian arm.
The English-language Jakarta Post newspaper, read by most foreigners in
Indonesia, showed a furious Indonesian eagle staring at the rear of a
retreating kangaroo, with the bird's chicks in its pouch flying a Papuan
independence flag.
"Don't worry, it's just temporary," the kangaroo is saying.
The same image was adopted by protesters rallying outside Australia's
Jakarta embassy this week when some painted obscenities on its walls.
They carried banners of an eagle swooping to grasp the bloodstained neck of
a kangaroo, shouting "Die kangaroo".
As nationalist MPs continue to criticise Canberra and with more protests
held today in Madura and outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta,
Indonesia's cartoonists won't be laying down pencils anytime soon.
Meanwhile, a memorial service for nine Australians who died on Indonesia's
quake-hit Nias island last year will go ahead this weekend despite the
bitter row over Canberra's granting of visas to 42 Papuan asylum seekers.
Just a day after a senior military spokesman raised doubts over whether the
ceremony would go ahead, Jakarta said Indonesia's director-general of
defence strategy, Major General Dadi Susanto, would attend Sunday's
ceremony.
Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Billson will lead the Australian delegation.
Letters of invitation had been sent to the chiefs of the Indonesian army,
navy and air force, as well as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
In Canberra Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the ceremony would honour
nine Australians whose deaths represented something "way beyond politics".
The nine died after their Sea King helicopter crashed during a rescue
mission following a massive magnitude 8.7 earthquake on Nias last April.
The Australian Navy is taking about 30 relatives of the service men and
women killed in the crash to Nias, ferrying them on a C-130 Hercules and the
HMAS Tobruk.
Meanwhile nationalist outrage against Australia continues to rise.
Last week the Australian immigration department granted temporary visas to
42 of the 43 Papuans who had landed at Cape York in January seeking asylum.
Today a former Indonesian intelligence director suggested that the
unsuccessful refugee may have been an Australian-trained spy.
His claim is the latest barb directed at Canberra in the dispute.
There have also been protest rallies, the recall of Indonesia's ambassador
from Canberra and cries from several senior Indonesian lawmakers for a full
severing of relations.
Amid mounting conspiracy theories that Australia has a secret plan for a
re-run in Papua of East Timor's separation, former Indonesian intelligence
director AC Manullang wrote in the Republika newspaper that Australian and
American agents were active in the province.
Manullang was one of many senior Indonesians to make bizarre claims that the
2002 Bali bombings were really the handiwork of the CIA or the Israeli
Mossad.
But his latest tirade reflects the mood and thoughts of many leading
Indonesians, who see Australia's visa decision as fresh evidence of a
western conspiracy to break up and weaken the world's most populous Muslim
nation.
"Intelligence reports show that Indonesians - in this case Papuans - have
long been recruited by foreign intelligence agencies, including Australia's
Office of National Assessments, to stir up Indonesia," he said, questioning
why one Papuan had not been given a visa.
"The one Papuan rejected in his asylum application may be an intelligence
agent of Australia.
"Information shows that preparing a ship and getting them on board was the
central part of an Australian intelligence effort to create an image that
there is no comfort or security in Papua."
He said Australia was using the same diplomatic tactics it used in the
leadup to East Timor's 1999 independence vote, which ended in a bloody
rampage by pro-Jakarta militiamen.
The spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has dismissed demands
for a severing of diplomatic ties, while Mr Downer has called for calm
-Refer:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/cartoon-sends-papua-row-to-new-low/2006/03/29/1143441208461.html
Refer:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/cartoon-sends-papua-row-to-new-low/2006/03/29/1143441208461.html-
TillyGr@xxxxxxxxxxx
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