Realpolitiks !

Ruffled feathers between Jakarta and Canberra this week.  An Australian naval vessel went to the aid of an asylum vessel just eighty kilometres off the coast of Java - well inside the Indonesian rescue zone - and Indonesia refused to accept the sixty-three asylum seekers back onto Indonesian soil.

That was the sort of incident that could easily blowup into a nasty slanging match.  Instead, Australia turned the other cheek.   Our navy was instructed to deliver those rescued to Christmas island, and both the Immigration minister and the chief of border security " declined to comment on operational matters ".

The opposition and some sections of the media will try to foment gain by trying to claim this as an " Australian backdown ".   In reality, it is an example of discipline within government ranks to prevent idle comment making a dispute worse.

Unfortunately, the matters released by whistle blower Edward Snowden giving details of the American National Security Agency's information gathering has tarred America's allies with this same " spying claim " brush.    It is claimed that our embassies are part of a " Anglophobe " consortium tasked with extracting sensitive secrets from the countries that surround us.

The Indonesian press has run with this story - and as a consequence many Indonesian people are angry with Australia and are looking to their government for action.    It would be politically insensitive for the Indonesian government to do nothing - hence the withdrawal of cooperation on asylum seekers is a very public way of showing their displeasure.

Australia accepted this rebuke with humility.   This spying disclosure is unfortunate, and a security breakdown in another country has brought accusations that we neither accept or deny.   What is important is to create distance to allow the matter to subside - and that has been achieved with dignity.

The worst possible scenario would have been for Australia to insist on Indonesia's responsibility to provide help to those in it's rescue zone and threaten to withdraw Australian support by our naval ships unless those rescued were repatriated to Java.    That would have upped the ante - and ensured that good relations were soured for a long period of time.

The Indonesian government is realist.   All nations gather information in what could be called " spying " and that is a fact of life.    Little has changed in the real relationship between the two countries but it has been necessary for Indonesia to satisfy public opinion with some sort of public reaction - and that has now been achieved.

Both governments are able to quietly resume normality !