"Habbibie only came to office after his corrupt predecessor, the billionaire dictator General Suharto, had been overthrown in a revolution."

By 1998 Suharto regime has past its due date and lost support of Indonesian population, who then forced him to step down. Indonesian people no longer had confidence in his rule to solve the financial crisis of 1997-1998.

"1) Corruption, ... 2) military rule, ... 3)poverty."

Indonesia has some problems with corruption, as is every country in the world. WRT to military rule and poverty, well I think I have shown that this is not a valid "charge" LOL. There is no use in beating a dead horse.

-Indonesia has not been under military rule since 1998, as praised by entire world community LOL
-There are 200,000 people with liquid assets exceeding USD100,000 and 24,000 people with liquid assets exceeding USD1 million, and 21 people with liquid assets exceeding USD1 billion. Not very poor aight? LOL
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.capgemini.com/insights-and-resources/by-publication/asiapacific-wealth-report-2009--english-version/&sa=U&ei=5yyVTfS3GseGcfy35cwJ&ved=0CA4QFjAA&usg=AFQjCNGBGROOmFCFKymzaAzmNxHYVxWLCg

"Habbibie, announced the referendum, in conjunction with the UN, and Portugal, partly as a result of strong Australian pressure."

LOL, Habibie made this decision because he think ET is a "worthless piece of land" producing nothing but rocks, but sucking in too much central govt subsidies.

"He, along with many others in Indonesia wrongly thought that there was support for integration with Indonesia."

Wrong. LOL, actually Habibie made many speeches in early 1999 telling Indonesian people that ET is worthless and hence need to be expelled so they would not burden Indonesian govt budget which at that time was suffering economic crisis.

"Thats four days between ‘ A pack of lies’ and ‘ welcome in’"

LOL, Indonesia was going to withdraw from ET according to our own timetable (November 1999). If Ozzie tourists would want to visit ET to accompany our soldiers for two months, why not? Indonesia is always the hospitable host, in fact we provided the accomodation and transportation for Oz soldiers. In fact, General Cosgrove in his farewell speech to Indonesian soldiers kindly thank us for our hospitality and in fact reimbursed some of our costs.

"But I’m sure you can continue your masturbatory fantasy of Indonesia’s power, greatness and influence."

LOL, I suggest you to reduce your excessive masturbatory fantasy of "heroic" Oz soldiers. Fact is, Oz soldiers has proved to be hilariously incompetent in preventing 60% of Dili being burned down by its own population in 2006 LOL.

for the Australian who says Papuan had no connection at all with Indonesian, I want to ask you, Is white people/westerners had a relations with the Melanesia/aboriginal people?, why you took up land of aboriginal people?, Australia is not owned by white people like you! but aboriginal people!... that why you speak just like a rubbish, which can only intervene in the affairs of other nations, without introspect your own country!...

Papua is one of several subgroup of Austronesian or the black malay, NOT Caucasian!

These articles show the differences between us!, and you must know who we are, and who you are, we have no connection at all with Caucasian people!. Austronesian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austronesian_people), white people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race), and mongoloid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongoloid_race)... so stop talking about human rights, because you (white people) actually are peoples who don't ever respect human rights...

IndiesPeople,

I'm not the least interested in insulting the Indonesian people. They demonstrate a lot of good points - and it's not the affluence (cash) that is paramount (as "Proud to be Indonesian" infers). It's the humanity, the integrity, the honesty and the industriousness (willingness to work hard for an honest living) that really determine the quality of a peoples or culture. I am satisfied that the Indonesian people in general and as a culture demonstrate these important attributes, and represent a strong and advanced democratic nation.

However, Indonesia as a nation still has a few problems - from both Western and Asian points of view. A broad observation would suggest that the Indonesian military holds rather more power in its decision-making and undertakings than would be tolerated in the U.S., Australia or Singapore, for example; and the courts and legal-system appear perhaps somewhat open to corruption and to undue external influence (be it from government, the military, or the very rich). There are lots of countries far worse off of course - take the Ivory Coast for example, or, worse still, Somalia - but then of course they don't purport to be as advanced and democratic as Indonesia does.

(To be continued.)

(Continuation.)

IndiesPeople,

As for the primary issue - that of Indonesia's right to occupy the territory of West Papua - this is not unlike China's occupation of Tibet. Both occupations are generally held in the West to be unjustified, abusive and corrupt. Still, the Western view is not holding much sway in convincing either of these two governments to revise their position and grant independence to these territories. So much for Western influence.

You contend that, as we Western Occupation immigrants, and immigrant descendants, have virtually no ethnic or cultural relationship to the Australian Aborigines, that we should pack up and go home. Sorry, but that is a very poor argument, because we Occupiers have been in residence for rather a long time (220+ years), and have never suggested we are related in any way to the indigenous population. In that at least we are honest occupiers.

Conversely, Indonesia has occupied WP in only recent times, by stealth, and with not the least interest in liberating or benefiting the native population. You contend Indonesia has an ethnic kinship with the WP indigenous people. What a load of absolute rubbish. Sure, we are all related - from far in the African past - and that is fairly near Indonesia's ethnic or cultural relationship to the WP people.

Indonesia has good points, but is far too arrogant, and ultimately needs to take a more realistic and honest approach to its international responsibilities in respect of West Papua.