Djakarta, 26 September 1969
Confidential
General Sarwo Edhie’s remarks about T.P.N.G.1
I refer to your memorandum No. 1258 of 18th September, your file 3034/10/114.2
2. I commenced action along the agreed lines before receipt of this memorandum. I discussed the matter with General Soepardjo at the Foreign Office and showed him a draft letter which I was thinking of sending to General Sarwo Edhie with a copy to the Foreign Office. Soepardjo asked me to give him an opportunity to discuss procedure with Army Headquarters before proceeding further. I thought this might lead to a request to me not to proceed with anything in writing, but in fact Soepardjo’s advice, after discussion with the Army, was that I should write to him, that he would send copies to the Army and to General Sarwo Edhie, and that my Military Attache3 should at the same time directly acquaint Army Headquarters with the action the Embassy was taking.
3. In fact, virtually at the same time as I was given this advice, my Military Attache was called to Army Headquarters. There a senior officer expressed some regret that the matter had got outside Army channels and indicated that he would have liked it to have been disposed of by the Military Attache coming along and discussing it informally at Army Headquarters. My Military Attache explained that we regarded the matter as too important to be dealt with in this way since the statement had appeared in the official Antara News Agency and published in the Indonesian press. We were not taking any public action, but we did regard it as important that the facts should be recorded and placed before the appropriate Indonesian authorities irrespective of whether or not General Sarwo Edhie had been correctly reported. The official at Army Headquarters then said that he had discussed the matter with the Army Commander, General Panggabean, and they were both convinced that General Sarwo Edhie could not possibly have said what was reported. The officer said that Sarwo Edhie was far too clever a man and that he had a promising career ahead of him and that he would know that any such statements by him would be very damaging to his future.
4. I am attaching copies of the letter which was given to General Soepardjo on 22nd September.4 l think we may take it that our action has registered strongly with the Indonesian Government. I mentioned it briefly to Malik, without further drawing him into a discussion on the procedure the Embassy was following. Our action in putting our position in writing would no doubt be regarded by the Indonesian authorities as a very direct and blunt way of going about a problem involving an Indonesian authority in General Sarwo Edhie’s position. But this will increase the impact and bring home to the Indonesians that we regard this sort of thing as very damaging and it will help the important process of getting the Indonesians to think seriously about where they stand in relation to T.P.N.G. I would also expect that the word would go out to Antara to be careful in future. Please ensure that a copy of the letter goes to Mr David Hay in Port Moresby for his personal information and, also, please ensure that the precise form of the Embassy’s action does not leak publicly.
[ matter omitted ]
[NAA: A452, 1969/3856]
1 On 30 August, Edhie was reported by Indonesia’s official news agency, Antara, as saying that ‘discrimination based on skin colour is still seen in [East Irian] in the fields of administration, education and the armed forces’. Speaking on the basis of his visit to PNG of December 1968 (see Document 248), Edhie said he had never met or heard of an indigenous officer; that even among NCOs there were only ‘one or two’; that segregation was evident in schools; and that further education and career opportunities were available in Australia to whites but not blacks (letter, Jockel to Soepardjo, 22 September 1969, NAA: A452, 1969/3856).
2 Osborn instructed Jockel to approach the Indonesians ‘in the manner you proposed’ and provided information on PNG intended to enable rebuttal and clarification of Edhie’s remarks (NAA: A1838, 3034/1011/4 part 9).
3 Colonel D.G. Sharp.
4 Having dealt with Edhie’s comments point by point, Jockel concluded: ‘There is a substantial Australian presence in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea … But it is beyond argument that the people of such an area could not advance and develop from their tribal beginnings without very considerable support from the outside. This is fundamental to the conception of trusteeship. It is fundamental to the carrying-out of the obligation which Australia has accepted in the United Nations to promote the political, economic, social and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the Territory and to develop them for the exercise of self government. The Australian Government can point to the establishment in recent years of a whole range of institutions for higher education and training. These are now becoming fully operable with the increasing flow of indigenous people through the secondary school system, and they are now producing the personnel to man more and more senior positions in all walks of life. Certainly, the rate of advance and change are matters on which different views may be held and, in accordance with the operations of the international trusteeship system, Australia is in annual discussion with the appropriate organs of the United Nations on these matters. I am fully aware of the valuable efforts of General Sarwo Edhie to bring about co-operation between Australia and Indonesia in respect of the New Guinea area. This makes it all the more important for us to clear up any misconceptions and for me to put before you frankly and clearly the actual situation in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea’ (NAA: A452, 1969/3856).