Firstly Indonesia is the 3rd largest receiver of our foreign aid.

Quote
Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says his country should strive to have a more powerful military than Australia.

About 16,000 Indonesian troops are preparing for joint military exercises in East Java.

Meeting with military commanders, Mr Yudhoyono told them that Indonesia's military should be bigger and more modern than countries like Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.

Indonesia's military boasts 470,000 active troops, while the Australian Defence Force has just over 80,000 full-time personnel and reservists..
It has also embarked on a military upgrade program, building warships and drones, as well buying fighter jets, helicopters and rockets.

To me this provocative statement is a wake up call as to the future intentions of Indonesia.

Seems you are here and often near to Bigotry.
Bet you are unaware John Winston Howard spent a great deal in that country.
His reason? to ensure education was not all Islamic.

Belly -Firstly I would like to remind you of something you posted before, Quote "Philip s it has been my intention to avoid you and you heated posts from your first day here." Epic Fail on your part.

Now to address your latest.
Quote "Seems you are here and often near to Bigotry." Please be so kind as to point out what part of my post above constitutes bigotry?

Quote "Bet you are unaware John Winston Howard spent a great deal in that country. His reason? to ensure education was not all Islamic." WHAT has that got to do with the President of a country making a statement as I have posted above?

You have really outdone yourself this time, please do what you originally said you would do OR engage your brain and read the post before putting your foot in your mouth with such stupid comments.

As a peace loving person I deplore all forms of militarism. After a long period of relatively modest spending Indonesia is now opening up the purse strings and spending on its military capability. This may be in part a response to our own recent action of "inviting" the US to station troops in Darwin. It is also possibly related to the military build up by other South East Asian countries, and also related to American and Chines posturing in our region.

This article is over 12 months old but it does give an fair account of what is going on in Indonesia.

http://thediplomat.com/flashpoints-blog/2012/01/18/indonesia-military-powers-up/

Phil you said; "to me this provocative statement is a wake up call as to the future intentions of Indonesia." Do you have a crystal ball, please enlighten us as to Indonesia's "future intentions". In what way do you see Australia aid as a factor in all this?

Paul1405 - Try reading this part "his country should strive to have a more powerful military than Australia." You not considering this as a provocative statement is understandable, in so far as you would welcome thousands of economic invaders for April alone we had 3319 arrive the vast majority of them single men.
They have for years been surreptitiously undermining us culturally and financially with there deliberately allowing tens of thousands of illegal economic refugees to use there country as a staging point to come to Australia.

Quote "In what way do you see Australia aid as a factor in all this?"
The more we give them in foreign aid the more they don't have to spend there own money on and can direct it to the military budget. Anyone with half a brain should have been able to deduce that.
They have budgeted $1.5 Billion for missiles and helicopter gunships alone.
Which we are subsidizing via foreign aid.

in what way do you see Australia aid as a factor in all this?
Paul1405,
You really are a rare specimen, are you totally whacko ? Was your foresight removed along with that skin ?
I'll have to check what the australian constitution says about the likes of you.