According to sources close to Indonesia, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is less than impressed with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. This view was formed before the election when Abbott, Bishop and Scott Morrison talked loud and long about turning around asylum-seeker boats and sending them back to Indonesia.
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It was confirmed when Abbott turned up late for two important gatherings at APEC where Yudhoyono was in the chair; and in case anyone contests this, when the egos of heads of state are on the line the attendance at all meetings of conferences such as APEC are important.
Politicians and other public figures do not live in a vacuum. Whatever is said domestically about another government will be reported, with comment, to that government by their embassy and additionally their foreign ministry will pick up the remarks from wire service reports.
Some years ago Abbott told an ABC journalist that he sometimes said things he did not mean in order to meet the political imperatives of the moment. This was a rare confession from a politician. It is a pattern of behaviour that has been confirmed over the years, the most recent being the about-turn on his boats policy in Jakarta this month.
The Indonesians are well aware of his bombast, his superficiality and his lack of understanding of the complexities of their country. They do not believe his statements about respect for Indonesian sovereignty. They are also well aware of his boasts, in the past, that it was the Howard government that liberated the people of East Timor. They remain concerned that an Abbott-led Coalition government would seek to do the same in West Papua.
The Indonesian elite are not blind to the policies employed in West Papua to keep that province within the Republic. They may not like it but as with Abbott's approach to refugee policy they see it as necessary, with the use of force the only means to put down the separatist movement. For Abbott to state, as he did to the Indonesian President, that he admired and respected Indonesia's policies in West Papua, would have led to sarcastic comments in Jakarta.
In the absence of getting the Papuan separatists to adopt Jakarta's point of view towards the province, Indonesia expects criticism, even if it does not welcome it. Of course constructive criticism is always more easily received than negative criticism.
Abbott's comments on West Papua and his turnaround on boat policy will have undermined his credibility in Indonesia; he will be seen as seeking to curry favour, and that will not win him respect in Indonesia or the rest of Asia.
He repeated his flawed version of regional diplomacy with a grovelling apology to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak at APEC for earlier criticism, when in opposition, on the nature of government in Malaysia, which in the event happened to be correct.
Razak leads a government that gained power through a gerrymander. It is a government on a par with that of Sri Lanka - corrupt and short on any notion of human rights. Razak is well aware of what the ruling UMNO party has had to do to hold on to power. It is ruthless, hard-headed and acts outside its own laws. Public grovelling by Abbott to Razak will have won him no points and has only served to give Razak and his government a degree of legitimacy they do not deserve.
Similarly pretending no human rights abuses are being perpetrated against the defeated Tamil minority in Sri Lanka by the corrupt Rajapaksa regime does not reflect well on Abbott. The position the government adopted has been taken in order to secure the co-operation of the Sri Lankan government in stopping the flow of refugees to Australia.
Canada has taken a different view and as a result will not attend the CHOGM to be held in Sri Lanka in a few weeks time. It is unlikely that the Australian and Canadian high commissions in Colombo are sending back different information on the situation in Sri Lanka. It might therefore be assumed that the Australian government is formulating foreign policy with respect to Sri Lanka solely on the basis of domestic political considerations.
Abbott and Bishop have challenges ahead which they show little aptitude to handle. Abbott has indicated a preference for dealing with Japan over China and India is not on his radar. Coalition foreign policy would be better placed in the hands of Malcolm Turnbull or Andrew Robb.
Bruce Haigh is a political commentator and retired diplomat.
