Oliver Laughland – Indonesia is bolstering its intelligence capabilities in the wake of the phone tapping revelations, as the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, awaits a reply from Jakarta after sending a letter to the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, on Sunday.
Yudhoyono issued a presidential decree over the weekend appointing the head of Indonesia's State Intelligence Agency (BIN) Lieutenant General Marciano Norman as the chief of a new Central Intelligence Committee that will co-ordinate intelligence gathering from other agencies including the police force and the military.
The Central Intelligence Committee will open a headquarters in Jakarta as well as branches throughout Indonesia, according to the Jakarta Globe.
Last Monday, Guardian Australia and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation revealed that Australian spy agencies had targeted the personal mobile phones of Yudhoyono, his wife and eight other senior ministers in 2009.
The revelations have caused a diplomatic storm between Australia and Indonesia, with Yudhoyono suspending all military cooperation, intelligence sharing and halting cooperation on people smuggling as he awaits a response from Canberra.
Yudhoyono wrote to Abbott last week, after using a public address to call for clarity on the phone tapping. On Sunday, Abbott said he had responded to the letter but declined to give details of the response.
Abbott's decision not to offer a public apology has been criticised by many in Indonesia, including senior opposition politician and ex-intelligence chief Tubagus Hasanuddin who said he was "lacking in diplomacy skills". On Thursday and Friday last week there were protests outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, with many of those present calling on Abbott to apologise.
The phone tapping revelations have led the news in Indonesia since the story began last week.
On Saturday, Indonesian newspaper Rakyat Merdeka published a front page cartoon depicting Abbott as a "peeping Tom". The cartoon shows Abbott peering through a door labelled Indonesia and masturbating. The caption runs: "Ssst! Oh my god Indo... so sexy."