Like all of us I am very proud of my nation of birth but sometimes she really gives you reason to be really really proud:
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso cut short his trip Tuesday after "discourteous" Australian officials served him with a summons.
In what the Indonesian side is likening to "illegal entry", officials from the New South Wales coroner's office reportedly barged into the governor's room at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney without permission, thrusting a summons toward Sutiyoso to testify at an inquiry into the 1975 deaths of Australian journalists in East Timor.
"They entered the room using a duplicate key accompanied by a hotel employee," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kristiarto Soeryo Legowo told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday night about the incident, which occurred at around 4:15 p.m. local time.
Check out the front page of the today's Jakarta Post and/or here for full details..Absolutely beautiful.
Must be hard for someone like Sutiyoso to accept that outside of his own little worl of grovellers and arse lickers he is nobody special just another dodgy suspect!
Now of course, Sutiyoso obeyed the laws of the land he was in and answered the summons (after all isn't that what the treaty with Singapore is all about). Actually, no he didn't..He ran all the way home, bleating and whinging about naughty, disrespectful ozzies...Tsk BLOODY tsk. Don't hurry back, you won't be missed! Still its nice to know if I am ever summoned to court in Indonesia, the correct course of action is to run.
Lastest information is Poor little sooty is demanding an apology, well on behalf of us all...Sooty..you have two chances........ Buckleys and Nunn. (I was going to use a picture with a nice polite hand gesture but nagh way too subtle).
The inquest is to do with the MURDER of five journalists in East Timor. There are thousands of pages on the actual murder both in print and on the web. I encourage you to view them all. Type Balibo Five in Google search and prepared to be disgusted.
Strange how things work though, my last post was on the dishonest, morally bankrupt Australian Labour Party. The ALP and its icon on inept Gough Whitlam is still trying to wash the blood of the Balibo five from their hands (not mention the blood of thousands of East Timorese.
Ooops late update: Sooty back in Jakarta and full of his won self importance has demanded a full and formal apology from the Australian Government or "If not, is there any point continuing the relationship between the two countries?"
You would find more than a few Australians agree with you Sooty but not for the same reasons. I concur an apology is due from the OZ Police but that is to the Australian public on why they didn't lock up a person plainly fleeing a legal summons.
In closing, I would on behalf of the Australian Legal System, I would like to para-phrase a recent Australian Tourist Ad...
"SOOTY WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YA!!"
Please come back.......we're waiting
9 comments:
As much as we want the truth about the Balibo case, we still think what the Australians officials did was counter-productive.
Why unauthorized-entry? (that assuming the news was true)
It's not like Sooty's going to jump out the window if they had knocked the door !
They couldn't detain him anyway (if they could they would have done so).
I don't have much love for sooty and I don't see the need of defending him.
But how could this kind of action be even remotely productive in solving the case?
.. and of course this will give reason to some to go around town messing with australians in jakarta, giving them hard times.
Totally unnecessary.
It is safe to assume there won't be any australian mayor planning to visit jakarta anytime soon...
Hello Oigal,
While your language is a bit more colorful and flamboyant than mine, it would appear that we have several perspecives in common.
Genocidal activities continue to occur in widely diverse places throughout the world, and go largely unpunished.
Hi Ben,
It would appear that the unauthorised-entry is a bit of a beat up and never happened.
Whilst in general your points are very valid however there is little the oz government can do to interfer with the legal system in OZ (Far different to...)
Firstly, virtually anyone can get a summons issued and you are right he could be not detained (its a summons not a warrant)but if he does not answer the summons, then a warrant for his arrest can be issued. A summons is just that a summons to attend legal proceedings not a warrant for arrest or detention.
Unproductive for sure, but a statesman of any standing would have shrugged it off and given it to the lawyers to play with, not run home with the sulks. It would appear that Sooty's main issue is that in oz, your position you think deserves respect is not automatic (and that is a very very good thing).
What would you have had the Australian Government do??
Reference: "Rent a thug", sad but again a statesman could stop it in a heartbeat. Does anyone really thing these guys have any idea about any of the issues.. (gee some of them look very buffed for innocents of the streets don't they?)
Safe to assume that no oz mayor in Jakarta soon... too true but then again why bother, every time the hand goes out it gets bitten off.
As for the Balibo Five, the death of the Journalists was one thing, but for me personally the actions of the OZ government at the time was far far worse than the actions of those that pulled the tigger (and knife in one case according to very reliable reports)
"While your language is a bit more colorful and flamboyant than mine,"
Hi and thanks...but your site ain't shy a of a turn of phrase itself.
You are of course right, it never ceases to amaze me, the selective versions of right and wrong...Dafur vs Gitmo anyone?
Hmm, the unauthorised-entry is a bit of a beat up and never happened ?
Hate to break this to you, but despite the exaggeration on one side and downplay on the other, the event did occurred.
Hence the apologies.
"(A) senior member of staff went up to the room with the police and the doorbell was rung on several occasions and then they proceeded to go into the room following the directions given by the state police," a hotel spokesman said.
Anyway. I don't like to talk about sooty. He's still an a*se.
But again, it could have been done in a more elegant way. The arrogance on both sides is just unnecessary.
(and the thugs cost me an important meeting! I was stuck in traffic because of them. Damn)
Whether he was actually involved in the Balibo killings is not determined. Nevertheless, Sooty does have blood on his hands from his time as Military Commander of Jakarta in the dying, literally, days of the Suharto regime.
He's also incredibly arrogant and done f**k all to improve life for the capital's citizens.
Maybe the summons servers could have gone about their task a little more 'politely'; one wonders what Sooty's reaction would have been if they'd asked him nicely to accept their invitation to attend the inquiry.
Still, he can be served the summons in August when his term as Governor is over and he will be without his 'diplomatic' cloak, assuming, of course, that he has the guts to return to Australia.
His reaction is way over the top and I think it's wonderful that he's leaving his job with this cloud of opprobrium hanging over his head. And I wonder how much he's paying his rent-a-mob, and what the source of the funds is.
Incidentally, why should any non-Indonesian city or whatever want a twinning arrangement with Jakarta?
Hi All,
The basic fact was Sooty was offended when he found out that he was not surrounded by the usual bunch of fawning rim lickers. The major point being that in OZ the goverment does not control the legal process and virtually anybody can get a summons sworn out and served..Elegant or not its legal, commonplace and something to be pround of.
Ben, I watch very closely the ambassador's comments..it was very carefully worded and was not an apology (but left enough room for face saving) I thought he did a great job.
I also notice the "forced their way into the room" wank has now been modified.
Anyone with a modicum of knowledge of the legal system, would have accepted the summons and passed it to his plebs to handle (of which he has no shortage).
Speaking of apologies, i have been looking everywhere for the apologies for the "rent a thugs" and threats made to innocent visitors to Jakarta during this period. Why do people let thmeselves get used like this time and again.
Jakartass, agree on all counts..
One last point, the NSW government is a standing joke, even their last election campain was based on "hey we are not as bad as the other guys"
Halo Again, my friend. I have changed my mind. I think I want to be your Friend. Will you be Friend, Oigal ?
Ass-mad
You want to be my friend...Do I look like a bloody wishing well on legs..
I have better idea, why don't you find a large field, dig a large hole, climb inside pull the soil back ontop of yourself. I will then come along a plough in the words "TOO ANNOYING TO LIVE" big enough to be seen from space..
fair enough?
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