Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said a misspelling of Pancasila, the
name for Indonesia's state ideology, was not the official stance of the
Australian government and that it was the personal action of an individual
officer.
Ryamizard said this includes an insult against Indonesia with the mention
of controversial issues surrounding Papua, Timor-Leste and the former
Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
"In principle, it is not their [Australia's] policy. It was a personal
act. They regret what happened and have acted firmly against the
perpetrator," Ryamizard said in Jakarta on Thursday (05/01).
The Australian government has sacked the officer responsible from his
position as principal of a military academy and launched an investigation
into the incident.
"They [Australia] have apologized and sacked the principal of the
institution," Ryamizard said.
The incident occurred when a language instructor from the Indonesian Army's
Special Forces Command (Kopassus) received learning material that contained
references deemed offensive to the country, such as a misspelling of Pancasila
as "Pancagila," which can be translated as "crazy five."
The materials were identified during a joint training session at an
Australian military base in Perth.
Separately, Indonesian Military chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo has confirmed
that he had received a letter of apology from the Australian Defense Force,
sent by Australian Air Force chief of staff Air Marshall Mark Binskin.
"I am a friend of Air Marshall Mark Binskin. I have replied to his
letter thanking him for the apology. We have suspended the joint training, as
discussions will continue after the investigation ends," Gatot said.
No comments:
Post a Comment