Senator Andrew Bartlett
Monday, June 06, 2005
 
Arriving in Indonesia

I spent most of today sitting in a plane on a seven and a half hour flight from Canberra to Jakarta. I am participating in a Parliamentary delegation – details on the purposes of the trip and who else is on it can be found in this media release by the delegation leader, Bruce Billson.

Given that the Daily Telegraph managed to make my visit to the detention camp on Nauru look like some sort of Pacific Island jaunt, I'm probably asking for trouble writing about a Parliamentary delegation flying to Indonesia on a government jet (especially as Anita Quigley, writing in the Daily Telegraph, has already labelled this trip as a jaunt and a waste of money before we'd even left the country).

However, I think it is worthwhile trying to outline the reality of what happens on trips such as these, as it might give some people a bit of an insight into what the benefits can be. It also provides at least some response to the inevitable cheap shots from the mainstream media about junkets and jaunts. I'm not naïve enough to think that bland descriptions of overseas trips by people like me will ever be an antidote to the mainstream media's instinctive fuelling of the general public's natural and often well-founded cynicism towards politicians. However, at least it provides some alternative perspectives for people who want to look.

Having just read a bunch of briefing papers that included all the security assessments and travel warnings for this region, I won't go into detail in advance as to what the itinerary of this trip is. Given that I'm travelling with a group of westerners, we are not surprisingly staying in a place where westerners tend to hang out which seem to be the focus of a lot of these travel warnings. All those travel warnings do focus the mind somewhat, no matter how much I feel such things will never happen to me. Suffice to say, I won't be going for any night-time sightseeing strolls.

However, hopefully I can give a few descriptions about what the delegation did, who we met and what we saw and heard. I've written a few times about the difficulties facing Indonesia as a nation and the importance of better understandings between Australians and Indonesians. That needs to be on all levels, not just parliamentarians, but greater understanding at this level has to be a good thing too.

We arrived in Jakarta OK and, at the risk of getting more cheap shots from the Daily Telegraph about the "Little Lord Fauntleroy lifestyle of politicians", I should mention we were met by Australian Embassy officials who moved us very quickly through customs. We were then driven to where we are staying. A dinner is being held soon with a number of members of the Indonesian Parliament, so I best post this entry and get myself prepared.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Monday, June 06, 2005 Permalink
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