December 3, 2002	Tuesday	Ramazan 27,1423

SINGAPORE: Friends in near places are what Australia needs right now. Yet the outrage of neighbours at Prime Minister John Howard’s latest remarks on pre-emptive defence leaves his land the loner on the block.

Responses ranging from questions and criticism at home to outright rage abroad greeted Howard’s statement on Sunday that he would be willing to take action in another country if he believed terrorists there planned to attack Australia.

Neighbours and analysts recognized that Howard leads a nation where nerves are raw and emotions running high after the October Bali bombing that killed more than 180 people, about half of them Australians, in what has been called Australia’s September 11.

But is there a need to go to extremes, many asked.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Indonesia, which has arrested several for the bombing on its paradise tourist isle, disagreed with Howard but cautioned against hasty judgments, saying his remarks should not be taken out of context.

“The statement made by Prime Minister Howard should be seen as a discourse... rather than a plan of action or policy that has been decided,” Wirajuda told reporters after a regular cabinet meeting. “There is no need to overreact.”

At home, too, analysts voiced concern, reminding that the relative international peace since the end of World War Two stemmed from some basic principles of sovereignty that Howard’s stance threatened to erode.

That view was echoed in the region, where the anger of many neighbours was fuelled by simmering resentment that Australia should feel it has a role to play in Asia after years of focusing its diplomacy on winning friends in the United States and Europe.

“Australia is reaping the consequences of its ignorance and failure to cultivate and maintain relations in the region. This has been a problem over the last 10 years,” said Andrew Tan of Singapore’s Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.

Further anger is likely if Australia chooses to promote the stand outlined last week by Defence Minister Robert Hill that international laws written to deal with major conventional wars need to be updated to cope with terrorism, and pre-emptive strikes should possibly be legalised under a revised UN charter.

“I seriously doubt if ASEAN is prepared to set aside its principle of non-interference in each others’ affairs to support any change to current international legal norms,” Tan said.—Reuters