Rahman, whose fatwa Osama bin Laden cited as justification for the 9/11 attacks, is as bad a terrorist as they come. A fatwa he issued before he was imprisoned for life in the US declared killing American Jews to be lawful. His followers once massacred 58 European tourists at Luxor, in Egypt. And he is linked to al-Qai'da leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, another Egyptian.
The fact that the newly minted president of the Arab world's biggest country wants Rahman freed as a priority raises serious questions about Mr Morsi's and the Muslim Brotherhood's pretensions about being Islamic moderates. So do claims by the Iranian Fars news agency that he told it another of his priorities was to forge closer ties with Tehran to create strategic balance in the region.
Mr Morsi is wrong on both counts. Egypt's economy could hardly be more dire. The country needs stability, not initiatives aimed at pleasing al-Qa'ida and Iran. If the new president wants to gain any sort of credibility, he needs to combat Islamic extremism, not identify with it.
Intelligence surrounding the al-Qai'da pre-Olympics plot, reported in The Australian yesterday, makes chilling reading. So, too, do recent events that show al-Qai'da and its affiliates slaughtering worshippers at Christian churches in pro-Western Kenya and attacking the ancient tombs of Muslim saints in Mali's fabled city of Timbuktu. The head of Britain's MI5 spy agency, Jonathan Evans, has highlighted concern about a pipeline of home-grown, radicalised Muslims travelling to terrorist training camps in Yemen, Somalia and the African Sahel.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the world's oldest and, arguably, most influential Islamist movement. Serious suspicions surround it. At a time of heightened concern about al-Qai'da, it will win no sympathy embarking on hare-brained initiatives like seeking freedom for Rahman. If it wants to be taken seriously, it must tackle Egypt's real problems, not pander to the terrorist gallery.
Indonesian relationship is in need of deepening
We deal with challenges and opportunities where the developed Western world meets the developing east, and where the entrenched democratic traditions of our Judeo-Christian heritage meet the nascent democracies of the Islamic world. Given these divergent cultures, there are bound to be tensions, but in recent years both sides have reached across the divide to find common ground, respect and mutual benefits.
The current irritants are largely self-inflicted. While Australia wants greater assistance from Indonesia to stamp out the people-smuggling trade, Indonesia is rightly frustrated that our border protection regime was deliberately weakened, thereby putting the "sugar back on the table". The truth is that Jakarta sees the asylum-seeker problem as one belonging to Australia, and it objects to its minors being incarcerated here after crewing boats involved in people-smuggling and illegal fishing. The shambles of the Captain Emad case has also weakened Australia's hand. But Julia Gillard will need to push for more law enforcement co-operation and particularly greater vigilance at Indonesian airports, where potential economic migrants could be intercepted before transiting to departure ports.
Last year's knee-jerk cancellation of the live cattle export trade has insulted and inconvenienced Indonesia. The damage has been done but there will be opportunities to make amends through working to improve the standards of the trade and providing expertise for the growing Indonesian cattle industry. On defence, we are bound to have different perspectives but the Prime Minister must not be apologetic about the reasonable and sensible rotations of US marines through Darwin. Australia needs to encourage ever-growing co-operation between our northern neighbour and our alliance partner. The US, Indonesia and Australia have all benefited greatly from intense yet unobtrusive co-operation against regional terrorism.
With Dr Yudhoyono - who has been a highly respected partner - within two years of the end of his final term, the relationship is set to enter a testing period. The high points, sadly, came in response to two major tragedies. The 2002 Bali bombings and subsequent terrorist attacks in Bali, at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta and at the Australian embassy took hundreds of Australian and Indonesian lives. They also triggered an unprecedented and ongoing level of co-operation between our law enforcement agencies, bringing to justice those responsible. And the massive tsunami of Boxing Day 2004 devastated parts of the region, especially Indonesia's Aceh province. Australia's emergency response and billion-dollar medium-term aid package ensured our nations bonded at a constructive level. This spirit was reciprocated when Jakarta supplied forensic experts and financial help in the wake of Victoria's 2009 bushfires.
While SBY and Ms Gillard meet, the real question is how to deepen the relationship through social, business and institutional links that are less dependent on political leaders.
IR realism better late than never
Former ACTU presidents Martin Ferguson and Simon Crean, two of the government's most competent ministers, yesterday raised well-founded fears that exorbitant greenfield wage claims risk killing off resources investment. Union bosses cannot dispute Australian Mines and Metals Association data showing that one in five new projects is stalling as unions refuse to reach reasonable agreements. Jobs and tax receipts are in jeopardy as competitiveness falters and China slows down.
Mr Ferguson and Mr Crean should enlist like-minded colleagues to push for a restoration of flexibility to the system, a feature the Rudd and Gillard governments were eager to abandon after 20 years of decentralisation under the Hawke, Keating and Howard governments. With $500 billion in new projects in the pipeline, Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten is considering changing the rules for greenfield agreements. Such reforms should be as far reaching as possible.
Nobody expects a return to Work Choices, but as Mr Crean said, after the inflationary wage breakouts of the 1970s, the Prices and Incomes Accords were built on the understanding that wage increases could be paid only through strengthening productive capacity. In his experience as a union leader, Mr Ferguson learned early on that it was important to look beyond short-term wage gains to maintaining long-term competitiveness and investment. Despite being the architect of the Fair Work system and a former industrial lawyer, Julia Gillard cannot afford to take a blinkered view of the problems identified by the AMMA.
Mining jobs are the highest paid in Australia and will remain so - but only if construction costs, which are already among the highest in the world, are contained.
Today's politicians and union leaders should emulate the responsible approach of those whose responsible foresight a generation ago paved the way for today's prosperity. Short-term thinking now will cost future generations of workers dearly.
0 comments:
Post a Comment