Australia Caught With Their Hands on the Secret Jar of Indonesia”s MP
Responding to Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s statement to Parliament that all governments gather information on each other.
Dr Natalegawa retorted: "I've got news for you. We don't do it."
Spies and friends
The spying revelations could not come at a worse time for the Coalition Government, writes Asia editor Catherine McGrath.
Indonesian MP Tantowi Yahya, a prominent member of the Indonesian parliamentary foreign affairs commission, agrees, telling Lateline that spying amounted to Australia treating Indonesia like an enemy.
"We don't expect to be treated like this, to be treated like enemies or countries that ... bring threat to your national interests," he said.
He continued: "We never consider Australia as a threat, and I would think that Australia would think the same way towards Indonesia. I mean, we have been good neighbours for years, for so long, there is no information that we cannot get from both sides.
"[If] Australia needs certain information from us, we are more than happy to supply [it]. But doing such wiretapping is something that totally unacceptable between the two countries who have been so good and so friendly in the past."
Dr Natalegawa says he has ordered the Indonesian ambassador in Canberra to return home to Jakarta as soon as possible.
"It's impossible for an ambassador in foreign country to do their duty in the midst of an unfortunate situation like this," he said.
"The summoning of the ambassador is not considered a light step, but it's a minimum step we can do to consolidate situation, and to show our firm but measured act."
Indonesia's powerful coordinating minister for legal, political and security affairs, Djoko Suyanto, is reportedly launching a review into all areas of cooperation between Canberra and Jakarta.
The ministry says it will contact Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop to let her know the issue will cause problems for the relationship. Indonesia is demanding Australia make an “ fficial and public explanation" and "commit not to repeat such actions".
The revelations came amid already heightened diplomatic tension over claims that the Australian embassy in Jakarta was involved in general spying on Indonesia.
Indonesian presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah had earlier called on Australia to provide answers.
“The Australian Government urgently needs to clarify on this news, to avoid further damage," he said on Twitter.
"The damage has been done and now trust must be rebuilt."
Secret documents show Australia targeted highest-ranking politicians
The top-secret documents are from Australia's electronic intelligence agency, the Defence Signals Directorate, now called the Australian Signals Directorate.
The surveillance targets also included vice-president Boediono, former vice-president Yussuf Kalla, the foreign affairs spokesman, the security minister, and the information minister.
A number of intercept options are listed and a recommendation is made to choose one of them and to apply it to a target – in this case the Indonesian leadership.
The document shows how DSD monitored the call activity on Mr Yudhoyono’s Nokia handset for 15 days in August 2009.
"One page is titled "Indonesian President voice events" and provides what is called a CDR view. CDR are call data records; it can monitor who is called and who is calling but not necessarily what was said.”
Another page shows that on at least one occasion Australian intelligence did attempt to listen in to one of Mr Yudhoyono's conversations.
But according to the notes on the bottom of the page, the call was less than one minute long and therefore did not last long enough to be successfully tapped.
Another of the names on the surveillance list was Hatta Rajasa, who was state secretary at the time of the spying and is now Indonesia's coordinating minister for economics.
"When I was the state secretary there were talks that shouldn't be made public," he told journalists.
"We have our own transparency law on information and there is no need to tap. State secrets are protected by the law and it shouldn't be made public.
"If the tapping were true, you know very well that it isn't good, it is not right. As I said, we need to clarify with the coordinating minister for legal, political and security affairs and I must not overreact."
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